


Stars

by VeganChocolateSyrup11



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A Pinch of Angst, ADD keith, Alternate Universe - College/University, Anxiety Disorder, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Dorks, F/M, Hispanic Lance (Voltron), Hospital, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Korean Keith (Voltron), Lance won't stop playing the saxophone, M/M, Minor Allura/Shiro (Voltron), New Year's Kiss, New Years, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Skype, Slow Burn, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Space Mom Allura (Voltron), Texting, anecdotes of drunk lance, anyways heres wonderwall, giving lance alcohol is a bad idea, he gets high off painkillers, its mostly just them being dorks so dont worry, keith can't control his emotions, lance is a band kid at heart, shiro likes to listen to ukulele music, so much saxophone, the room references, this turns into a hospital fic for like two chapters, youre tearing me apart lisa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-07-27 11:31:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 20,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7616407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeganChocolateSyrup11/pseuds/VeganChocolateSyrup11
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were two things that Keith disliked the most about college:<br/>1. His roommate's taste in music<br/>2. Sanchez</p><p>Aka. Keith and Lance become texting buddies thinking they have never met but they do in fact know each other and dislike each other with the passion of a thousand stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Do Starfish Dream of Flying?

There were two things that Keith disliked the most about college.

1\. His roommate's taste in music

Shiro was a cool guy, and in all respect one of the best people Keith had the pleasure of socializing with, but if he has to listen to one more ukulele cover of a cheesy love song, Keith has decided that the couch in the commons seemed like a decent place to sleep.

2\. Sanchez

There is not a way that Keith could describe Sanchez in good light. They did not bother to socialize outside of the Astronomy lecture hall, where everything seemed to be a war between the two of them. In fact, the only reason Keith knew his name at all was because the man talked so much that even the professor had to step in and ask for  silence.

Keith could not stand Sanchez.

Thankfully, he did not run into the dreaded trash of a man often, due to the fact that fate decided to be kind to Keith for once and place them in different dormitory buildings. That meant that the dorm commons were free of Sanchez and Keith could curl up in the corner of the couch  and type away an essay without being interrupted. At least in theory, that would have been the case.

Currently, Keith could not even bother to concentrate on his essay thanks to the constant buzzing of Shiro's phone on the coffee table. The owner of said phone eyed it reluctantly before reading the texts visible on the lock screen. He set the phone to the side without bothering to reply, yet not even a second had passed before the cursed thing buzzed again.

Keith shut his laptop. "Could you please make that stop!?"

His roommate sighed, picking up the phone. "I'm afraid that is not an option."

"Why? Can't you just mute it?" Keith frowned.

"I'm expecting a call from Allura in about an hour," Shiro explained calmly to his irritated friend. "I really do not want to miss this one."

The way Shiro said it, he was adamant on answering this specific call, and Keith did not want to mess that up for him. Instead, he tried suggesting, "Why don't you just reply then?"

"It's not that easy," He scrolled through the unread messages without unlocking the phone. "When Lance is ranting, not even aliens can stop him."

"What is he ranting about?" Keith asked.

"Stars or something like that."

Keith's eyes narrowed. "If its about stars, maybe I could find a way to shut him up."

Shiro raised an eyebrow in amusement at Keith's suggestion. He proceeded to unlock his phone, passing it to his roommate over the barricade of textbooks between them. "Suit yourself, just don't read my texts."

Keith took the phone, nodding in acknowledgement of Shiro's request before scrolling through the unread messages in the open skype chat.

 

 **Sir Lancelot:** dude

 **Sir Lancelot:** my bro

 **Sir Lancelot:**  pal

 **Sir Lancelot:** do u think starfish drem of flying????

 **Sir Lancelot:** cuz like

 **Sir Lancelot:** they look @ th stars

 **Sir Lancelot:** and maybe they think

 **Sir Lancelot:** "hey... i wanna join em"

 **Sir Lancelot:** like an intergalactical star rave f storts

 

Keith has to stop and re-read the messages multiple times before he could even comprehend what the other man was getting at.

 

 **Sir Lancelot:** bro i saw u read this

 **Sir Lancelot:** im having a cRISIS

 **honey nut Shirios:** starfish dont have the psychological capability to think

 **Sir Lancelot:** ok nut what if they did???

 **honey nut Shirios:** but they dont

 **Sir Lancelot:** but WHAT IF!!?????

 **honey nut Shirios:** stars are just gas, why would starfish WANT to "join them"

 **Sir Lancelot:** ur not space dad

 **Sir Lancelot:** WHAT DID U DO TO SPACE DAD!!?????

 

Keith frowned, reading all that caps lock made his head hurt. "Space dad?" he turned to Shiro, questioning him.

The question's recipient just sighed. "The planetarium club tends to have a running joke of calling me dad."

Keith nodded, in a state between amusement and confusion, before turning his gaze back to the phone screen.

 

 **honey nut Shirios:** he lent me his phone

 **honey nut Shirios:** b/c he doesnt want to talk to u

 **Sir Lancelot:** bETRAYAL

 **Sir Lancelot:** who dis then??????

 **honey nut Shirios:** his roommate

 **Sir Lancelot:** ooohhhhhh

 **Sir Lancelot:** u must b Keith then

 **honey nut Shirios:** he mentioned me?

 **Sir Lancelot:** ya

 **Sir Lancelot:** he says u wont stop listening 2 that weird rock station

 **Sir Lancelot** **:** that eh cant handle 1 mor min of Louder thn the DJ

 **honey nut Shirios:** well i cant handle any more ukulele

 **Sir Lancelot:** IKR!??

 **Sir Lancelot:** this is an interventio n

 **Sir Lancelot** **:** no moar ukulele

 **Sir Lancelot:** anyway heres wonderwall

 

Keith visibly choked on bubbling laughter and had to look around the commons to make sure nobody saw.

 

 **honey nut Shirios:** if were stating interventions then i gotta add

 **Sir Lancelot:** SPILL

 **honey nut Shirios:** he puts his milk b4 the cereal

 **Sir Lancelot:** SAVAGEEEEEeeeee

 **Sir Lancelot:** IMMA TELL MOM

 **honey nut Shirios:** he also puts ketchup on his eggs

 **Sir Lancelot:** thats not that bad

 **honey nut Shirios:** r u kidding!? its disgusting

 **Sir Lancelot:** ketvhup on mac n chez is disgusting

 **honey nut Shirios:** Shiro would disagree

 **Sir Lancelot:** WHYYyYYyyYY ????????

 

Before Keith could reply, the incoming call screen appeared with a photo of none other than Allura staring back at him. The ringtone alerted Shiro, who's head snapped in its direction faster than Lance could type. Keith reluctantly handed the phone back to Shiro, who answered the call almost immediatley, stepping out to allow his friend some peace and quiet while he studied.

He would not admit this to just anyone, but Keith rather enjoyed his short exchange with Lance. Now that there was no distraction, he could focus on his essay at last.


	2. Part the Red Seas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A nice short chapter featuring Lance and a few stupid antics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The photo Lance sends is a link!

Today was not one of Lance's best days. In fact, it could not even be considered a good day, or a day at all. Lance woke up in the middle of the night to a bloody nose and a migraine of Samson's strength. Using the hem of his shirt to control the bleeding, the thin man climbed off the top bunk, grabbing his phone from its place charging at the corner of the cluttered desk before hiding away in the bathroom.

As soon as he turned on the lights, he could see the terrifying reflection that stared back at him. Blood covered his entire upper lip and part of the cheek he had been resting on while asleep, not to mention the giant bloodstain on his shirt he would now need to wash off.

Unlocking his phone in a quick V pattern, Lance opened the GroupMe app, sending a stereotypical mirror selfie to the members of the planetarium club

 

 _[2:41 am]_  

 

 _ **Lance Ice Baby**_ _has sent a[photo](http://princess-of-slaughter.tumblr.com/image/148177238127)_  

 

 **9999CP Pidgey:** did you turn into a zombie without telling us?

 **Coranic** : HOLY QUIZNACK! tHAT'S a lot of blood

 **Alluring:** Lance you idiot

 **Alluring:** are you okay?

 **Lance Ice Baby:** im fine babe, u should c the other guy tho

 **official dad:** LANCE

 **Lance Ice Baby** **:** im ok

 **Lance Ice Baby:** its just a nosebleed

 **9999CP Pidgey:** did you dream of Mister Mullet™ to get such a blood bath??

_**Alluring** likes this message_

**Lance Ice Baby:** OOOOH HELL NAH

 **Lance Ice Baby:** I AINT DREMING BOUT THAT LIL SHIT

 **9999CP Pidgey:** ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 **Alluring:** why did i bother waking up

 **Alluring:** screw you, boys

 **Alluring:** im going to bed

 **Lance Ice Baby:** sweet drems princess~~~

 **official dad:** I'm gonna check out too

 **Choranic:** same here

 **Choranic:** there is much to do in the mor

 **9999CP Pidgey:** mor?

 **Lance Ice Baby:** mor.

 **Choranic:** oh shut it

 

Lance put his phone down on the counter, staring at his bloodied reflection. He agreed that in fact he did resemble a zombie somewhat. Oddly proud of that fact, Lance took a couple more light-headed selfies before wiping off the blood with a wet towel. After stripping himself of the stained shirt, he threw it in the sink, allowing the water to run through and soak the fabric. Lance opened the bathroom door, grabbing his phone on the way out, when a terrified Hunk threw himself at Lance, toppling the both unto the cold tiled floor.

"What the heckie, bro!?"  Lance groaned, his body in shock from the sudden weight on top of him. "Warn me next time, will ya? You can hold it a little longer."

"Lance!" Hunk immediately sat up. "Oh thank goodness you're alright. I saw the blood and- Well I thought you had gotten killed or something and then I heard the phone camera- What if the killer was taking selfies with your corpse in the bathroom!? What would I tell your parents!?" The big man stopped his rambling when Lance placed a hand on his shoulder. 

"Hunk... callate," he stated simply before slipping out from under his roommate and standing up. "Anyway, if a killer were to sneak into our dorm room, he would probably go after you first. You're bottom bunk."

Hunk narrowed his eyes. "Wow," he sniffed. "That just made me feel  _so_ much better. Thanks, Lance. If a murderer does come in I'll make sure he gets to you first."

"Me vale. I'll kick their asses into the sun." Lance made a dramatic punching motion, keeping the pose for a couple of moments longer than needed.

"Right," Hunk deadpanned. "You go do that. I'm going back to bed." The man left Lance posing alone in the yellow bathroom light.

The thinner roommate scoffed, relaxing back into a more comfortable position. He soon realized that he was still light-headed from the massive loss of blood. With nothing better to do, Lance headed to their small kitchenette. Once he opened the mini-fridge, he realized that there was nothing there except a box of month-old take out leftovers.

It was way too late, or early for that matter, to go to the cafeteria and get some actual food, so Lance decided to risk it and eat the stale contents of the styrofoam container. 

"If it looks and smells edible, its probably safe to eat," Lance muttered to himself as he took out the box and shut the refrigerator door.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone that has read this thus far. I love you all.  
> I appreciate even the smallest of comments and suggestions.  
> the photo lance sent has a link attached to it. Its a drawing I made of the selfie.
> 
> "me vale" means something along the lines of "i could care less"  
> "callate" just means "shut up"
> 
> hmu on tumblr, im quincyisawreckingball and princess-of-slaughter


	3. Baking Soda Fixes Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro really needs to learn to silence his phone.

Every morning, without exception, Shiro left for a run before his morning class. From that point, he would head straight for breakfast and not return to his dorm until that afternoon. Keith knew the routine like the back of his hand, and it usually was not a problem for him to deal with. That is, if Shiro remembered to take his phone with him.

Being woken up earlier than his set alarm by constant skype notifications coming from his roommate’s phone is not the way Keith prefers to start his mornings, but he did not have much of a choice as the notifications buzzed one right after the other. With an irritated groan, the man finally sat up and crawled out of his bed.

The way his dorm is set up is different from the other dorm buildings in campus. Each building had a different layout and personality to it, and the one Keith was lucky to get into was more of a miniature apartment than anything. His room was separate from his roommate’s, but they shared a small common living space and kitchenette, which was barely used since they did not spend a lot of time in their room as it was. Much to Keith’s relief, Shiro had left his phone in plain sight on top of a small bookshelf. The man picked it up and typed in the passcode, which he had learned from watching Shiro unlock his phone without the other noticing. He thought about texting Allura to warn Shiro about his missing device when the constant flood of skype notifications started up again. He was about to just silence the phone entirely when the username caught his attention, and Keith decided to open up the skype chat instead.

 

 **Sir Lancelot:** SHIRO

 **Sir Lancelot:** SHIRO HELP ME

 **Sir Lancelot:** I THINK IM DYING

 **Sir Lancelot:** DADDY PLS I NEED U

 **Sir Lancelot:** ITS AN EMERGENCY

 **Sir Lancelot:** MAJOR

 **Sir Lancelot:** DON’T TELL ME U FORGOT UR DAM PHONE AGAIN

 **Sir Lancelot:** oh! Ur online

 **honey nut Shirios:** Shiro forgot his phone

 **honey nut Shirios:** this is keith

 **Sir Lancelot:** dam I needed him to get some notes for me

 **honey nut Shirios:** I was about to contact Allura, what did u need?

 **Sir Lancelot:** the calculus 3 notes from prof Zarkon’s lecture

 **honey nut Shirios:** ah I have his class after lunch, I can send them to u instead

 **Sir Lancelot:** YOU WOULD!!???

 **Sir Lancelot:** UR A LIFE SAVER

 **honey nut Shirios:** y do u need them though?

 **Sir Lancelot:** well…

 **Sir Lancelot:** u c….

 **Sir Lancelot:** i MIGHTVE got food poisonin

 **Sir Lancelot:** turns out month-old orange chicken is not v gud for the tummy

 

Keith sighed out loud. “This guy…” he muttered to himself. Out of the only two times he has conversed with Lance, Keith had already come to the conclusion that this man was not much of an intellectual. How he had managed to get into a calculus 3 course was beyond Keith’s understanding.

 

 **honey nut Shirios:** r u an idiot or smth

 **Sir Lancelot:** wow r00d

 **honey nut Shirios:** w/e

 **honey nut Shirios:** i don’t use skype tho

 **Sir Lancelot:** u can just txt me then

 

Lance sent a message with his phone number, which Keith proceeded to add into his phone, putting a star emoji next to Lance’s name before sending a test message to make sure it was the right number. He closed the skype chat, scrolling through Shiro’s contacts before sending a quick message to Allura.

Keith did not really regret his decision of offering to help Lance out until a stampede of texts clogged up his phone that afternoon in the middle of a lecture. Thankfully, unlike a certain someone, Keith preferred to keep his phone on silent, but that did not stop the text notifications from taking over his lock screen.  

 

From: Lance☆

Hey Keithy boy

 

From: Lance☆

By any chance

 

From: Lance☆

Do u kno how to wash stains from a carpet?

 

From: Lance☆

Pls answer, my roommate is mad @me

 

Keith sighed, unlocking his phone to casually reply while the professor explained some theory or another.

 

 

To: Lance☆

U can probs ask the RA if theres any cleaners u can use

 

To: Lance☆

I sugest baking soda if theres any at hand

 

From: Lance☆

Y wuld there b baking soda @ hand

 

From: Lance☆

Wait nvm Hunk still has baking soda left

 

To: Lance☆

Ok since you already distracted me from the lesson I got two questions for u

 

From: Lance☆

Shoot

 

To: Lance☆

First of all

 

To: Lance☆

Y do you have baking soda?

 

To: Lance☆

I know I suggested it but I didn’t expect you to actually have some on hand

 

From: Lance☆

Ah that’s e z

 

From: Lance☆

Hunk rly likes cookin and bakin and stuffs

 

From: Lance☆

Its actually lik rrly good

 

From: Lance☆

U should totally try his desserts

 

To: Lance☆

Didn’t u say u had food poisoning?

 

From: Lance☆

From takeout

 

From: Lance☆

Not hunk’s food

 

From: Lance☆

Never hunks food

 

From: Lance☆

That would eb a sin

 

From: Lance☆

Against the culinary arts

 

From: Lance☆

Bless hunk and his godlike cookin

 

To: Lance☆

Wait y havnt u gone to the hospital yet?

 

From: Lance☆

Fuk taht I got like no money

 

From: Lance☆

I aint paying for hospital bills because of some shitty food I ate

 

To: Lance☆

Alright

 

To: Lance☆

                 Second of all, why is ur roommate mad?

 

To: Lance☆

Shouldn’t he be looking after u?

 

From: Lance☆

Well ya see he kinda woke up in the middle of the night to see my bed

 

From: Lance☆

Empty of my being

 

From: Lance☆

And kind of covered in blood

 

From: Lance☆

So I might have given him a mild heart attack

 

To: Lance☆

Do I want to know WHY it was covered in blood?

 

From: Lance☆

I fought a shark

 

To: Lance☆

Lance

 

To: Lance☆

This is Michigan

 

To: Lance☆

There are no sharks in Michigan

 

From: Lance☆

Fuck then I got nothin

 

Locking his phone again, Keith turned his attention back to the professor with a small smile that was not there before. It was not very often that Keith had the opportunity to make friends, and Lance seemed rather amusing, even though he did appear to be an idiot. Maybe Keith was, indeed, lucky.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not very good with texting fics so please bear with me.  
> Anyways sorry for making you all wait so long  
> This fic will have a slow pace, but that's mostly because the chapters are so short.  
> and yes, they all go to university in michigan, somewhere in michigan, who knows where.  
> any comments or suggestions are very much appreciated!


	4. Sexy Sax Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who exactly has Lance been texting?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another update?? so soon?? and a longer chapter at that???  
> :0  
> Here's a little treat for you guys, I hope you enjoy!

The planetarium was located at the far end of the science building, reachable only through a single flight of stairs that led below the main floor. Nobody ever used the facility in years, and in pity of the unused room, Lance had been the first to suggest starting up a club to get some use out of it. Of course, it was Shiro that actually got the club up and running with the help of Allura, and thus the planetarium club was born. What the club did was unknown even to its members. Sometimes they held presentations for the nearby schools, inviting whole classes of elementary students to the small facility. When they were not preparing for such presentations, one could walk in to see the members lying about either studying or just hanging out, and at the moment that was precisely what was going on. Or at least, something like that.

Pidge sat in a small corner of the planetarium, under a table, using their laptop screen as their only source of light to read through the assigned section they were very intent on finishing. Unfortunately, it was rather hard to get through even a sentence with the very loud saxophone playing resonating through the room. “You know, if you really want to practice, you should go to the music hall,” Pidge scoffed, glaring up at the source of all the noise from their hiding spot. “Maybe use a practice room or something.”

“Now, why would I do that?” Lance raised an eyebrow at the youngest member of the club. “I’m perfectly fine practicing here.” He looked away for a moment to adjust the neck piece.

“You… are being a nuisance, that’s why. Some of us are actually trying to study,” Pidge picked up his engineering textbook as if to prove the point. “Your fifty renditions of Careless Whisper are becoming a distraction.”

“You’re just jealous, Pidge,” Lance smirked. “Hunk doesn’t seem to have a problem with my amazing musical talents.”

The two turned their heads towards the subject of conversation, who did not seem to pay any attention to them at all. Instead, he continued to scroll through his phone, taking some notes on a small notebook that had been laying on his chest. Noticing both gazes on him, Hunk took an earbud out and stared back in confusion. “What? Did you guys call my name or something?”

“As I was saying,” Pidge faced Lance once more, rather annoyed. “It is becoming a distraction to those who can actually hear you.”

Allura sat up to join the conversation. Up until that point, she had been laying her head on Shiro’s lap, reciting the definitions of French vocabulary from a stack of flashcards the club president was using to quiz her. “Playing a song in repeat like that can get rather annoying,” Allura agreed with Pidge.

“Well if you wanted me to switch it up, why didn’t you just say so?” Lance grinned, breaking out into a loop of epic sax guy.

Pidge let out a loud groan, covering their ears and curling up farther in the shadows below the table. “Look at what you’ve done! You’ve encouraged him!” They yelled at Allura.

The woman just shrugged. “I don’t see a problem with it as long as it’s not the same song over and over again.”

“Don’t you know ANY other songs, Lance?” Shiro furrowed his brows, eyeing the man with an unamused expression over his shoulder.

Lance stopped playing, “Like what? You got any ideas?”

“Oh! Play that Motown jam you showed us the other day,” Coran suggested, earning another rather loud groan from Pidge as Lance more than enthusiastically began jamming to Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.

“Why do you subject us to this torture?” Pidge slammed their face on the open textbook before them.

Allura laughed, “he’s enjoying himself, I say we let him be.”

“It’s more productive than all the texting he’s been doing for the past few days,” Shiro agreed.

This caught Pidge’s attention. “Texting? He hasn’t been spamming the group chat much.”

Shiro shook his head, “Looks like somehow he got a hold of my roommate’s number.”

“As long as he’s not waking me up in the middle of the night with his dumb antics again, I’m good,” Allura sighed, leaning her head back on top of Shiro’s lap.

“Wait… your roommate, Keith?” Pidge asked, eyes glinting with some unknown emotion. Not even a second after Shiro nodded, Pidge snapped at Lance. “You‘ve been texting Keith Kogane and NOT informed us!?”

Lance suddenly stopped his saxophone playing, staring at the small honors student with fearful eyes.

“Wait wait… THE Keith Kogane that Lance would not shut up about since the start of term?” Hunk spoke up, tearing the earbuds from his ears out of sudden interest.

“That’s the one,” Shiro nodded, an all-knowing smile plastered on his face.

Lance stared at the club president with a mixed look of shock and betrayal. “You never told me his name was Keith KOGANE.”

“I thought you already knew his name,” Shiro raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t know his first name! What am I supposed to do now!?” Lance moved his saxophone to the side, using his free hand to pull at his hair. “Does he know who I am? I mean- Does he know that I am me?”

“What kind of question is that?” Coran scratched his head.

“I do not think he knows exactly who you are,” Shiro explained to the panicking man. “If he did, I seriously doubt he would be talking to you so willingly.”

Lance visibly relaxed, taking the neckstrap off before setting the instrument on one of the benches. “He can’t find out. Not in a million years. That bastard will stop talking to me the moment he finds out.”

“You could use this for your advantage, you know?” Pidge proposed.

“No!” Lance stated fiercely enough that Pidge jumped slightly, hitting their head with the top of the table. “He hate my guts. It won’t go anywhere even if he knew.”

“Whatever,” Pidge rubbed the top of their head, closing their laptop and gathering their study supplies back into the backpack they had brought. “Suit yourself, Mister Saxy.”

Lance sighed, ignoring Pidge as they climbed back up the planetarium stairwell. Taking his phone from his back pocket, he noticed the small notification light was blinking. Lance unlocked his phone, face relaxing into a soft smile when he read the messages.

 

From: Keithy-boy  
You know

From: Keithy-boy  
Its weird to think that even tho the sky is so blue that there’s still stars hiding in there

To: Keithy-boy  
There is a star

To: Keithy-boy  
It’s the big yellow one

From: Keithy-boy  
Well the sun is always there

From: Keithy-boy  
Sometimes I forget that it’s a star as well

To: Keithy-boy  
R my philosophies inspiring u?

From: Keithy-boy  
Shut up

Yeah, Lance sighed. Keith could not find out, or this would be ruined, and that was the last thing that Lance wanted. Not when he was this close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for all the comments and kudos! I feel so loved (:
> 
> Lance has finally found out who he's been texting~ I wonder how long it'll take for Keith to realize?  
> Probably not very long at this rate
> 
> Lance is a band kid in his heart and soul, but he is not officially in the band. He quit band after his senior year due to reasons I might bring up later, but he still enjoys practicing once in a while.  
> His main instrument is the saxophone but he can also play the trumpet and the guitar.  
> Sadly, he can't sing even if his life depended on it.
> 
> Anyways, hope you've enjoyed this so far!


	5. What Is Real?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2k words? Wow, this chapter is twice as long as the others.  
> I debated on cutting it in half but I felt like it fit better as a whole.  
> I hope you enjoy~

It might have been his imagination, but Sanchez did not seem like himself. It could have been the stress of the final days of mid-term exams, but Keith could not be sure. Stress gets to everybody, just as it was getting to him at that very moment. The words on the paper before him seemed like no more than an illusion, and with only half an hour left to finish the exam, he could not help the worry in the back of his mind that wondered if he would be able to finish in time.

He had taken precautions and studied nonstop while he still could, reviewing a compilation of his notes until he had passed out on his desk from sheer exhaustion. Needless to say, that morning was hectic; Keith slept through his alarm and barely had time to grab some snacks as a makeshift breakfast before rushing to his first class, hoping with every fiber of his being that he would not arrive late to his first exam. Now he was hungry, sleep deprived, and unable to focus in the problem at hand due to his eyes having the sudden urge to focus on the word “constellation” printed on the paper.

His small spell was broken with the sound of a chair shuffling a couple of rows behind him. He peeked out of the corner of his eye to see Sanchez stand, taking the exam up to the professor’s desk and leaving it on a pile other student’s had already started before leaving the classroom. Keith frowned, gripping his pencil tighter at the sudden feeling of another battle lost. If he had only woken up in time, he would have gone through his morning routine without a hitch and he would not be sitting there staring at the same word. Sanchez won this time, but Keith could not allow him to get a higher grade in this exam. 

With newfound motivation, Keith plowed through the rest of the exam, searching for the answers in his recent memory. Unfortunately, even though Keith remembered clearly covering the section multiple times, he could not remember any of the answers to the questions presented before him. Scratching under his jaw in frustration, Keith stared at the exam. With still no clue as to what the answer was and barely any time left on the clock, he followed his gut and guessed on the rest of the questions. This plan was successful, much to Keith’s relief, as he managed to fill in the last question just seconds before the professor called time and the remaining students were urged to turn in their exams. 

The winter air outside was brisk with a familiar bite to it, making Keith’s face hurt the moment he opened the door of the science building, intent on heading straight to the cafeteria for a quick bite. His plans were shattered when Shiro saw his exhausted form and immediately decided to approach him. 

“Keith, I see you finally finished that Astrology exam you were worried about,” the taller man smiled kindly at his roommate, placing a hand on his shoulder in what Keith could only explain as fatherly pride. “How did it go?”

“It went alright,” Keith replied, but he seriously doubted it was so. He barely finished on time, and none of the answers seemed right in his eyes. He was surely going to fail the midterm at this rate, and it would take a lot to bring his grade back up to what it currently was. No, it did not go alright. Keith clenched one of his hands into a fist as he realized just how small the possibility of passing seemed. 

Shiro’s hand squeezed his friend’s shoulder, snapping him out of the toxic thoughts and back into reality. “That’s good. You studied very had, I’m sure it’ll pay off.” Letting his hand fall back to his side, an idea flashed across his eyes. “Hey, you must be hungry, right?”

Keith blinked, “Uhm… yeah…” 

“The planetarium club is taking a break from studying. Why don’t you join us for a bit? Hunk is feeding us all the food he prepared to practice for his culinary midterm,” Shiro suggested the idea to Keith in a warm, brotherly tone, the kind of voice that he knew Keith could not refuse. The man in question agreed without much of a fight and followed Shiro back into the science building and down the dark staircase into the dimly-lit planetarium.

“Shiro, you’re back!” Allura greeted the man, approaching the two newcomers with a certain bounce to her step. “And this must be THE Keith, I suppose.”

Keith just tilted his head, wondering if Shiro had seriously been speaking of him that often around his friends. Lance had only mentioned complains about his music taste, but what if Shiro complains about other things too? Keith could not me sure about what these people knew of him, or what Shiro could have spoken to them about. “Yes, that is me.” The worries gnawed at him, one after another.

“Pleasure to meet you, my name is Allura,” the woman held out her hand for Keith, who shook it with slight hesitation. “I’ve only heard good things about you. Shiro says you could probably compare to Pidge in the sheer amount of studying you do.” Allura’s voice had a certain tone and accent that calmed Keith. The two men followed her to one of the tables, covered in endless amounts of food that awaited them. “Unfortunately, Pidge isn’t here at the moment. Pidge and Lance are at the lab working on a physics project for their midterm. They said it was almost done, so they should be making an appearance eventually.”

Keith nodded in acknowledgement, taking a plate of what appeared to be some kind of green quiche. He eyed it reluctantly before taking a bite. If he stayed a while, maybe he would get a chance to run into the infamous Lance and finally meet his digital penpal. Another worry crawled into the back of Keith’s mind, leading him to wonder about what Lance would think if he met him. What if he didn’t like Keith? What if he thought he was annoying? What if he thought he was unattractive? Keith was unsure why that last question made it into his thoughts. Lance was one of the few people that Keith felt comfortable talking to, even if it was about nonsense more than half of the time they conversed. It was not the sort of friendship that Keith wanted to throw away so quickly.

Once more, Keith was broken out of his intrusive thoughts by a voice that belonged neither to Allura nor Shiro. “So, what do you think?” Keith turned to face a man just slightly taller than himself, but much larger. “I thought that one might have a little too much salt, but I cannot be too sure because I don’t think it’s enough for it to be noticeable. Do you think it’s noticeable?”

Keith blinked at the man and then at the quiche. “I think its fine…”

“Really, that’s a relief,” The man chuckled awkwardly. “The name’s Hunk.”

Keith realized that Shiro and Allura had migrated toward the other end of the planetarium, talking to another man with the most impressive mustache Keith had ever laid his eyes own. “I’m Keith,” He introduced himself rather simply, feeling slightly out of place.

“Oh, I know, Lance talks so much about you I honestly have the urge to tape his mouth up because he honestly will not shut up,” Hunk explained, going through at least four different facial expressions reciting that sentence alone.

Keith did not know what to think about the new knowledge, wondering what Lance could probably mention about him. “You’re… his roommate, right?”

“The one and only, though at this point I am honestly considering taking Coran as my roommate next year. I feel like one more year with Lance might give me an ulcer from how much stress he’s putting me under.”

Keith could not help but chuckle slightly, “I don’t think-“

“Man, I’m STARVING!” A familiar voice echoed into the planetarium, stopping Keith’s train of thought right in its tracks. He turned around only to come face to face with the last man he wanted to see at that moment. Standing at the bottom of the staircase, stretching his arms out behind his head, was none other than the dreaded Sanchez. “Hunk, please tell me there’s some food left.”

“There’s plenty to go around,” Hunk replied in an excitable tone. Keith froze, realizing that this man, this man that annoyed him to no end, that made his Astronomy course a living Hell, was friends with Shiro’s friends. He was friends with Shiro.

“How’d the project go?” Allura spoke up, facing Sanchez and another, much younger-looking, student that had descended the staircase behind him.

“Well-“ Sanchez stopped in his tracks, finally noticing the fact that Keith was in the room. His eyes were wild, body frozen in its spot and they stared at each other in shock.

“You…” Keith finally spoke. “Why are YOU here!?”

Sanchez raised an eyebrow, confused by the simple question. “I should be asking you! Why are you here!? Shiro!?” He turned to the club president, pleading for an explanation with his helpless expression.

“Don’t bring Shiro into this!” Keith hissed at the man before him. 

“I specifically asked him not to bring you here!” Sanchez barked back, but not as viciously. If at all, his voice seemed scared. It was uncharacteristic of him, but Keith had no time to ponder on it.

“Not to bring me here!? So are you saying he can’t make new friends!?” 

“What!?” deep brown eyes went wide in panic. “No… No! Why would I say that!? You’re getting this all wrong-“

“Oh, so I’m wrong now, eh? Are you right? Do you always have to be right!?”

Sanchez raised his hands in surrender, “Please don’t do this now, I’m just trying to talk.”

“Oh, so NOW you just want to talk,” Keith narrowed his eyes, placing the plate back down on the table. “I thought everything was a competition with you.”

“Look, Keithy-boy-“ 

The shattered look on Keith’s face caused the man to stop talking immediately. “What did you just call me?” Keith’s voice lowered. 

“Wait-“

Keith did not allow him to continue. He shoved his way past Sanchez and up the dark staircase, back into the science building. He did not stop when he heard the all too familiar voice calling his name, or when he heard the sound of quickened steps chasing after him. Keith ran through the hallways and past the first set of glass doors into the frozen air of Michigan winter. The reflecting light off the white snow blinded him for a second, just long enough for the man to catch up, running into Keith and causing them both to tumble into a cushion of snow. 

“I said WAIT!” Sanchez yelled, holding the other man down by the shoulders. “Just hear me out-“

“You have nothing to say to me,” Keith hissed. His mind was buzzing with thoughts, trying to come up with reasons why Lance would talk to others about him. Why Lance would tell Sanchez of all people. Was it all a joke? Was he trying to make fun of him? Was this all planned out? Keith could not come up with an answer for these questions in time, for they got drowned out by an endless stream.

“Just STOP, okay!?” Sanchez squeezed the man’s shoulders. It was not the action, rather how Sanchez’s voice cracked with the words that caused Keith to finally stop his struggling. 

Keith scoffed, “What did Lance tell you? Did you guys plan this out?” He could not stop some of the many questions that slipped past his lips. His mind was clouded and nothing seemed real. “Did Shiro put you up to this? Was this some kind of prank?”

After a moment of silence, the taller of the two broke into a small fit of laughter, confusing Keith even more. He was about to snap again when the man above him finally calmed, “My name. You don’t know my name.” Keith blinked, thoughts quieting down for only a second to be able to hear what his self-proclaimed rival had to say. “My name is Lance Sanchez.”

And that’s when Keith’s mind crashed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops. I wonder if keith is okay?  
> that anxiety did seem to be bothering him a lot.  
> For anyone that was wondering, the meds Keith takes are for his ADD but they help with his anxiety as well, thats why he struggled so much in this chapter.  
> Before anybody judges his symptoms and everything, they're based on personal experience.  
> Thank you all for sticking around thus far~
> 
> hmu on tumblr, I'm quincyisawreckingball and princess-of-slaughter


	6. Crawling In My Skin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro, actual Dad™, has to go and fix his sons' mistakes.

The planetarium was oddly silent after Keith’s sudden outburst. Shiro shared a glance with Allura, who mirrored the same concerns that he held. After waiting a few moments, he decided it had been long enough and climbed the dark staircase in pursuit of the train wreck at a much calmer pace than the other two left with.

Shiro was not sure what to expect, but it surely was not Lance face down on the snow mumbling the muffled lyrics to Crawling. Sighing softly, Shiro kneeled beside Lance.

“You’re going to catch a cold if you stay like that,” Shiro spoke up, patting the man on the back.

Lance ceased his singing for a moment and turned his head to peek at Shiro. “Leave me to die of hypothermia. There is no reason left to live.”

“Singing Linkin Park won’t fix anything. Come on,” Shiro stood, pulling Lance to his feet in the process.

Lance shook the snow off his jacket weakly, shoving his hands in his hoodie pockets to preserve warmth. Shiro furrowed his brow in pity of the man’s state. “He knows…” Lance muttered under his breath. “He knows and I think he believes this was all some master plan against him.” Shiro could feel the helplessness in his voice. Lance was a lot of things, but contrary to popular belief he was not superficial. If Lance was into something, he dived deep into it. Everything was go big or go home when it involved Lance Sanchez.

“Keith is not unreasonable,” Shiro explained to Lance. “He was just in shock, that is all.” Lance did not seem very assured by this statement, so Shiro continued. “Here’s what I propose. Go back to the planetarium and get some food. I’ll speak to Keith and clear things up. Sound good?” Lance nodded in understanding and headed back inside the building, humming a melody under his breath. “And no more Linkin Park!” Shiro called after him, causing the man to shut up and quickly close the door behind him.

On the other hand, Keith was exactly where Shiro expected to find him, locked up in the bathroom, muttering to himself. He heard the dull thud of Keith’s fist colliding with the sink counter, followed by a much louder sound of his foot against the door.

“You alright?” He asked with the softest voice he could muster.

Keith choked out an “I’m fine,” keeping the door closed between them like a barricade.

Shiro sighed. “Lance is not the type to play with people’s feelings. He would never do something out of spite.”

After a pause, Keith opened the door, fixing his eyes on Shiro’s. “So… I messed up…?”

“No, you were just upset. He is too,” Shiro explained. “I caught him muttering one of those depressing songs you like while lying face down on the snow, begging for hypothermia to take him.”

Keith could not help but chuckle slightly at the mental image. “That does sound like him.”

“Well, I’m gonna head back and make sure he’s alright. Text me if you need anything,” Shiro stood, leaving Keith alone with his thoughts.

After what Shiro said, Keith realized that he may have overreacted at the whole situation. He thought of how bad Lance must have felt after all the terrible things Keith told him. The man must be hating himself and Keith did not even bother to listen to his side of the story. He felt like such an idiot, tightening his grip on the edge of the bathroom counter.

Keith turned his head, eyeing his phone which peeked a corner out of his winter coat. He had to apologize, somehow, and this was the only way he knew how.

 

To: Lance☆  
Look man

To: Lance☆  
I’m really sorry about the way I acted

To: Lance☆  
My reaction was unnecessary

To: Lance☆  
I just want to apologize and say

To: Lance☆  
That I would like to start over

To: Lance☆  
If you still want to talk to me, that is

 

Keith sent the last message, setting the phone down on top of the short bookshelf and waiting for a reply. He did not expect a reply to come, but he surely hoped for it. Whatever it is he had with Lance, the Lance he truly knew, not his stupid classmate in Astronomy, was something he wanted to salvage if he could.

 

From: Lance☆  
No

 

Keith froze, staring at the message that sat at the bottom of his screen.

 

From: Lance☆  
I wuld not like to start over b/c that means I would have to start frm a clen slate

From: Lance☆  
And I already kno so much bout u

From: Lance☆  
So I wuld like to keep talking to u

From: Lance☆  
nd get to kno u better

From: Lance☆  
Hopefully

From: Lance☆  
b/c it was never my intention for u to hate me

To: Lance☆  
Deal

To: Lance☆  
Just pls don’t get hypothermia, you idiot

From: Lance☆  
DID SHIRO TELL U THAT!?

 

Keith snickered in amusement. This relationship, whatever they had, was not something he wanted to lose any time soon, and he would fight to keep it as such.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third chapter of the day?? Wow, I'm on a roll!  
> Thank you all for all the wonderful support!!


	7. Top Secret Santa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whatever remained on campus of the space squad is preparing to celebrate Christmas, or in Lance's case: Pre-Christmas

Once midterms came to an end, students were urged to leave campus for winter break. Some of the students at the university stayed on campus during break due to various reasons. Some, like Keith, did not have anywhere to return to, while others, like Lance, just did not have enough money to take a trip home. Pidge was lucky enough to have family close by, so they did not stay for the yearly planetarium club secret Santa tradition.

“Secret… Santa?” Keith blinked in the direction of his roommate, who was currently writing names into slips of paper.

“Yeah, you get someone from the club assigned and you have to find a present for them. It doesn’t have to be a physical object or anything that requires money,” Shiro explained, dropping all the pieces into one of his winter caps.

“Why would you want me to join? Isn’t it some kind of club tradition?” Keith furrowed his eyebrows, putting his phone down beside him on the bookshelf.

“It is,” Shiro smiled knowingly, closing the cap with a fist as if he was carrying a miniature garbage bag. “The others seem to like you. That’s why they’ve asked me to invite you.”

Keith was taken aback by Shiro’s statement, pausing a moment to think over it. “Well… if they’re okay with it I guess there’s no harm in going,” he shrugged it off nonchalantly.

The expression on his roommate switched from a calm smile to a smug grin, “That’s good, because I already added your name into the mix.” He headed to the door, shrugging on a winter coat. “We don’t want to keep them waiting.”

Keith blinked, “Wait.” Shiro turned to face his roommate, grin still spread across his features. “You added me before I even answered?”

“I already knew you would say yes,” was all Shiro said before slipping out of their dorm.

Keith had only been in the planetarium once before, a couple of days prior during the Lance-Is-Actually-Sanchez Incident, so he did not know what the place would be like during a typical day. His confusion only grew exponentially when the soft echoes of a Christmas song resonated through the science building’s empty halls. Fittingly enough, Keith recognized the song as a saxophone solo of Deck the Halls. Unsure about why there would even be a saxophone playing in the science building, Keith arched an eyebrow at Shiro, who just chuckled without actually replying. His question was answered as they climbed down the staircase, when the club member’s voices were finally audible.

“Lance,” Hunk groaned. “It’s not even Christmas yet. We have an entire week.”

The saxophone player only stopped playing for a moment to speak. “An entire week of PRE-Christmas,” He explained as if the answer was fairly obvious. “We still gotta decorate the planetarium. I’m just trying to set the mood.” He proved his point by jamming into a jazzy version of Jingle Bells.

“I believe the mood has been set,” Keith spoke up, turning the rest of the members’ attention towards the recent arrivals. Everybody was there, aside from Pidge who, as Shiro had explained to Keith on their walk there, had left to visit their parents and brother in Alabama.

“Keith, you made it,” Lance beamed, slipping the neckstrap off. “You’re gonna join us?”

“Well, apparently so,” Keith shot Shiro a look, which the other knowingly ignored.

“Well?” Lance raised both of his eyebrows expectantly at the paler man, waiting for some kind of response.

“Well, what?” the recipient deadpanned, slipping out of his coat.

Lance rolled his eyes in exasperation. “My playing,” he raised his saxophone up in an attempt to explain. “What do you think? Do you think it was… saxy?”

Keith stared into the man’s dark blue eyes in plain amusement. “Ah sorry, it seems like I’m having trouble hearing you,” He pretended to clean his ear with his pinky finger. “Some loud, horrid noise has ruined my hearing capabilities.”

The expectant expression crumbled into one of childish offence. “Wow, okay then mullet. I see that your appreciation of music is as bad as your fashion sense.” He crossed his arms over his narrow chest in a pout.

Keith looked about ready to snap at him with another comment when Allura intervened, holding her palms out towards the two men like an animal handler trying to contain a pair of temperamental lions. “Now, boys. We already know Shiro is the one with the questionable music choices.”

“That’s true,” both men agreed almost at the same time, turning to the club president. Shiro looked at them and then at Allura with a face of strained betrayal, yet the woman did nothing but chuckle warmly at his reaction.

“Now, why don’t we pick out our annual holiday victims?” Coran rubbed his hands together mischievously, changing the topic.

“Right,” Shiro blinked, holding out the hat towards the others. Six pieces of paper were neatly folded inside in a way that whatever was written on them could not be visible just by looking at them. “You know the rules. Keep your secret Santa a secret, and in no way hint the person you are gifting.”

Everybody reached a hand in the cap, picking out a piece of paper from the scrambled pile. Keith just watched their expressions light up with the revelation, already brainstorming ideas in their heads for what could work as the perfect Christmas gift. Shiro nudged the bag toward Keith, urging him to take one as well. With nothing left to lose, Keith picked out one of the two remaining shreds, leaving Shiro with whoever’s name was left.

With extreme curiosity, Keith unfolded the small piece of lined paper, eyes focused on the neatly printed name with Shiro’s handwriting.

_Lance_

Keith wondered if coming along truly a good idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe how much support I have recieved for this fic over the bast few days  
> You guys are seriously amazing!  
> The previous conflict might be resolved but there is still more to come with these space dorks  
> Suggestions are always welcome!  
> I hope you have enjoyed this so far~


	8. Mundane Ice Dust War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Hunk prepare a special surprise for the rest of the squad.

“Lance, I’m freezing out here,” Hunk complained, kneeling behind the bushes that decorated the entrance to the science hall. “Do we really have to do this?”

“Of course,” Lance tilted his head, dumbfounded that Hunk did not understand. “The point of it being a surprise attack is that it’s a _surprise_. That’s why it’s called a surprise att-“

“Alright, I get it,” Hunk cut him off with a wave of his hand, shifting his weight around in the uncomfortable squat he had descended into to fit behind the bushes. “I just don’t understand why-“

“Hush!” It was Lance’s turn to interrupt his roommate, placing a finger on his lips. Hunk frowned at him in annoyance, to which Lance responded to by motioning toward the path that led back to campus. Hunk arched an eyebrow at first, but a soft giggling brought him to his senses. The target was close by.

With his fingers, Lance counted down from three, locking his gaze with Hunk's to make sure they were both on the same page. As soon as the last finger went down, Lance jumped from his hiding place, throwing a snowball with enough leverage to reach Allura, hitting her right in the face. The rest of the team stood in shock for a moment, processing the situation, when Hunk sprang up from his own hiding spot, a snowball on each hand. He pitched them one right after another, missing Keith by an inch with one and landing the other on Shiro’s arm.

By that point, the rest of the members had caught on with what Lance and Hunk were trying to initiate. Keith was quick enough to make and throw a snowball, hitting Lance on the side before he was able to pick up his second one. Shiro and Allura teamed up, shielding each other from Hunk’s endless rain of hastily-made balls of snow while the other prepared to retaliate. Coran was having the time of his life, not attacking but rather trying to destroy the snowballs in midair with dramatic karate chops, complete with sound effects straight out of a badly dubbed kung fu movie.

The snow war seemed to stretch out forever, but it ended within five minutes with Lance face down in the snow, yet again much to Shiro’s amusement, Keith trying his best not to flinch with chunks of snow sliding down his back, and Hunk posing in a standoff against Coran.

Shiro laughed, shaking off a couple of stray snowflakes from his hair. “Alright, I think that’s enough for today.”

“But dad~” Lance whined, lifting his face now with a red tint to it due to the sub-zero temperature.

Shiro deadpanned at Lance, who tried his best at making puppy eyes toward the club leader. “Alright,” Shiro gave in. “But if you’re not inside in ten minutes I am coming out to get you.”

Lance cheered, rolling unto his back. Shaking his head in mild amusement, Shiro stepped over him and walked into the science building, followed by Allura.

“I don’t know about you guys, but Imma make a quick stop to the bookshop to get some hot chocolate,” Hunk explained, breaking out of the standoff to make his way across campus.

“Ha! I am the winner of this mundane ice dust war!” Coran cheered right after Hunk had moved out of position. He pondered on what to do for a moment and decided to follow Hunk to the bookstore. “I might as well help get some beverages.”

Keith and Lance were left alone in the snowy wasteland, wrecked by the planetarium club’s civil snow war. Lance sat up, realizing that his favorite fleece coat was now covered with snow.

“You know what?” Keith smirked down at him. “White suits you.” He held out a hand to Lance, which the other gratefully pulled to help him get to his feet. He could feel his whole arm tingle at the touch, their hands hovering beside each other for a moment longer before Keith shoved his in his pockets.

“You think so?” Lance replied, shaking off as much of the snow as he could.

“Yeah,” Keith checked Lance out, causing the recipient to grow hot under such an intense gaze. “It blends you in with the snow, almost as if you weren’t even there.”

“Hijo de-“ Lance pushed him with enough force to break his balance but not enough to make him fall. “You’re out to get me, aren’t you?”

Keith just laughed, “I am the bearer of truth, It’s not my fault you are so full of opportunities.”

“You know what!?” Lance stomped off to the side, walking around the building. Keith stayed put, worried that he might have pushed Lance over the edge. That is, until Lance returned with a pair of garbage can lids in hand. “I’ll prove to you and to everyone that I am better than Keith Kogane.”

“Is that so?” Keith stared at the lids in confusion.

Lance paused, eyes narrowing with a sly smirk stretching across his face. “I challenge you to a sledding race.”

 

Neither Lance nor Keith were back during the promised time, and as Shiro had explained before, he left the planetarium to go in search for them. They were not at the science hall entrance or with the returning Coran and Hunk, and Shiro began to worry about the two underclassmen. He paced across campus, scanning the snow-covered courtyard for any sign of them. He was about to head back in case missed them when he noticed Keith’s coat at the corner of his vision, down on the frozen ground a few yards away from the huge staircase right outside of the library.

As he got closer, Shiro was able to get a better look at the situation. In awkward positions, as if they had fallen, Keith and Lance lay side by side, laughing from the pit of their stomachs with childlike glee. Shiro sighed in relief, leaving them be for a while longer. A few more minutes in the snow would not hurt anybody.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again!  
> I hope you enjoy this silly chapter~
> 
> Pidge's father and brother work at the Marshall Space Fight Center in Alabama
> 
> "Hijo de-" is the relative equivalent of "Son of a-"
> 
> Thank you for all the support <3


	9. Don't You Forget The Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is Christmas Eve and the gift exchange is finally here!

“Will someone PLEASE take that saxophone away from him,” Hunk whimpered in pure discomfort, holding the garland to his ears in an attempt to muffle Lance’s jazzy cover of sleigh ride. The latter was using one of the benches as a stage, clad in a pair of pajama shorts and an oversized handmade sweater with a reindeer stitched to the front, clearly a gift from someone.

Keith pushed his hair back, staring at the sun-kissed man in beguilement. “Aren’t you going to help us set up?” He called to him over his obnoxiously loud playing, sticking his free hand in one of his sweatpants’ pockets. “I thought Christmas spirit was your thing.”

“It is my thing,” Lance said, moving his mouthpiece away for a brief moment. “I’m spreading the spirit as you guys decorate the place.” Without a moment of hesitation, Lance continued his festive playing.

Keith was not very fond of Christmas. He was not a religious man, and the holiday barely had any meaning to him at all, but the way the others seemed so pumped about it lit a small flame within him. A ray of hope that maybe it would be enjoyable for once. He had found out from Shiro that neither Allura nor Coran celebrate the holiday either, but they go along with it anyway for some reason or another, and Keith did not have the heart to ask them why they bothered.

Almost as if summoned by Keith’s thoughts, Allura climbed down the stairwell carrying a very small plastic tree which she proceeded to place in the middle of the room, where the benches had been previously moved to make a circle.

“That’s the last of it, I suppose,” Coran rubbed his hands together, looking around at the monstrous decorations. There was garland everywhere, some of which shed on the food which Hunk had spent so long preparing, the benches did not make anything resembling a circle, more like an irregular polygon, and everybody’s clothing choices for this Christmas eve celebration did not make it any better. Aside from Lance’s disaster of an outfit, Hunk had been stumbling around in a Rudolf onesie, complete with a red nose and antlers on the hood. Shiro had been talked into wearing a Santa hat and red pajama pants fully decorated in tiny Christmas trees. Coran had found a hat that came with an attachable white beard, and Allura was wearing a red sweater more than a couple sizes too big that read _WINTER IS COMING_ in white print. They all seemed very enthusiastic aside from Keith, wearing only a hoodie from university and black sweatpants. Thanks to Lance earlier that day, he had joined the holiday spirit by wearing an elf hat, but nothing more.

“Don’t mind me asking, but…” Keith looked over at Lance, who was putting his saxophone safely away in its case. “Why put up the decorations up now? You guys have had a whole week.”

“The thing is… we aren’t supposed to be down here during break,” Lance scratched the back of his head. “The professors let us be since we keep the place clean and don’t cause much trouble, but if we kept the decorations up for a whole week they would probably lock us out for the rest of winter break.”

Keith hummed in understanding, leaning against the closest table. Lance shoved the saxophone case underneath it, wincing at the dull sound of it hitting another object under the table. Before Keith could strike up another conversation, a chorus of wooing reached the two men from the other end of the room. Allura was staring at them, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively at the two. Lance used a hand to cover his face, turning it away, while Keith just frowned at the woman, wondering what could have led to such reaction. With a grin, she pointed upwards, motioning Keith to look up above him.

“Quiznack….” The shorter of the two muttered under his breath. Lance followed his gaze to the relatively high ceiling above them. The object was high enough that it was not noticeable unless one was staring right at it, but low enough that someone could have probably reached it by climbing on top of a table. There, among the painted constellations, hung a handful of mistletoe tied with a decorative red ribbon, watching over the two men in its powerful glory.

Hesitantly, Keith turned his head to face the man beside him, who had done the same. Their eyes locked for a moment, brown against blue, wary and insecure, but Keith could see a shadow of hope in the deep ocean before him. Their eyes stayed on each other’s, drawing each other together like magnets. Lance was tense, hesitant, but Keith allowed the intoxicating feeling of butterflies drown him, closing whatever was left of the space within moments. The kiss, if it could even be considered a kiss, was but a tentative brush of lips, a short spark between the two men, yet the feeling was explosive like the moment an alkali metal came in contact with the water’s surface.

They would have stayed like that, frozen in time, if it weren’t for Allura’s loud cheering pulling them back from whatever dimension they had been floating in. The two men broke apart, staring at each other in mild shock.

“I think this calls for a GIFT EXCHANGE!” Coran projected, holding up a paper bag with a badly-tied ribbon stapled to it. This seemed to ease the tension, for the club gathered at the polygon of benches, gifts in hand.

“Well… how does this work, exactly?” Keith asked aloud to the group.

Allura took this chance to answer, “It is as Coran said, a gift exchange!” She beamed, clutching a box-shaped gift to her chest. “One person would describe whoever their secret Santa is without giving out the name so the others can guess in their head who they think the recipient is before the gift is actually traded. Then that person would do the same for THEIR secret Santa.” Realizing that Keith was not getting any of what Allura had just explained, she volunteered, “I guess I’ll go first.”

Allura stood, looking around the circle at no particular person. “My secret Santa is a man with a very kind heart, always willing to help out those in need even though he may be wary of the danger. This gift goes out to one of the people that work very hard to hold this club together and never fail to show concern.” She turned to face her assigned exchange. “Hunk, this goes out for you.”

The men clapped in approval as Hunk stood, wrapping Allura in a tight hug before taking the present from her hands. “Oh, my goodness- I can’t believe- Thank you so much.” He proceeded to open it as Allura headed back to her seat, revealing a limited edition cookbook. “Wow… I…”

“Flip the page,” Allura urged him.

Without hesitation, Hunk did as she said and froze right then and there. “Autographed by altON BROWN!? Are you serious!?” He stared at Allura in shock. The woman just chuckled and nodded. “Man, this is AWESOME!” After taking a good look at the autograph, Hunk reluctantly put it down on the bench and took a relatively small box instead, wondering around to the center of the circle.

“My secret Santa… has the most amazing mustache-“

“Hunk!” Lance interrupted him, disappointed in his roommate. “You gave it away so easily.”

“Well, I’m sorry I’m not as good with words as Allura is,” The big man scoffed, holding out the box to a fast approaching Coran.

It didn’t take very long for the redhead to get the box open, pulling out a fist-sized pusheen cat with a mustache and monocle stitched on its face. Coran awed at it, patting Hunk in the head with a grateful thank you. Hunk headed back to his seat while Coran switched the pusheen with the brown bag he was holding earlier, facing the remaining candidates.

“My secret Santa is… Well he is…” Coran scratched his head. “I don’t know him well enough to describe him, but he seems to have two settings. Sly cat or grumpy mcgrump face… so…” He held out the bag towards the man in question. “I hereby hand this gift to Leith.”

“Keith…” The man corrected, standing up and accepting the bag. Coran patted him on the back a few times before sitting back down, leaving Keith in the middle to open his gift. Reaching inside the bag, Keith pulled out a mug wrapped in newspaper to keep it from breaking, and upon further unwrapping he revealed that it was no ordinary mug, but a Grumpy Cat mug. Lance broke into a fit of laughter at the sight of it, and Keith could not help but smile fondly at it too. It was a gift with thought behind it, and that was something he could appreciate.

“My secret Santa,” Keith began once Lance’s laughter had subsided. “Is a man with a very… strong personality.” He walked in circles, avoiding eye contact with any of the club members, mostly Lance. “A man with the philosophies of a drunk and a wit comparable to a mouse. A man… who is not afraid to show his true colors and would give everything to keep everyone together…. So… I surrender my gift to you…” He reached into the pocket of his hoodie, pulling out a CD case and handing it over to the man in the shorts and knitted sweater.

Lance blinked for a moment, standing up to receive his gift. He scanned the album cover, which was an old constellation map with the question “Do Starfish Dream of Flying?” squiggled across. He opened the case, scanning the list of songs written in a spiral around the CD; each and every one had a title relating to stars or something similar. He noticed a moment after that there was a quote written in the back of the album cover. In what Lance could only guess was Keith’s messy handwriting read “are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at the stars because we are human?"

“Thanks, man,” Lance wrapped his arms around Keith, holding him there for a moment before returning to the bench. Keith took a seat, watching Lance as he reached under the table where the saxophone case was. He could not help but note how well those shorts fit him, or how they seemed to ride up slightly as he kneeled down to reach for whatever object he needed to obtain. Said object was in fact none other than a small, blue ukulele, all tuned up and ready to do.

“Do I really need to explain myself?” He grinned smugly as he stumbled his way back to the circle, much to everyone’s amusement and Shiro’s embarrassment. “This goes out to Dad, lover of cheesy ukulele covers.” He strummed a couple of cords in a repeated loop, waiting for the others to quiet down for a minute before began the song.

 

_“Yo he pelia'o con cocodrilos_  
_Me he balanceado sobre un hilo cargando más de quinientos kilos_  
_Le he da'o la vuelta al mundo en menos de un segundo_  
_He cruza'o cien laberintos y nunca me confundo”_

 

His voice was much deeper in Spanish, but his singing was anything but angelic. He sung in monotone, swinging from side to side for the amusement of his friends. He stared at Shiro as he serenaded him, barely able to keep the grin from his face. It was when he reached the chorus that his eyes seemed to shift, landing right on Keith’s for a full verse.

 

_” Por ti, todo lo que hago lo hago por ti_  
_Es que tú me sacas lo mejor de mí_  
_Soy todo lo que soy_  
_Porque tú eres todo lo que quiero”_

 

He whistled after the last chorus, letting his hands move on his own as they struck each chord before he finally came to a stop, earning applause and cheers from the members of the planetarium club. With the ukulele still in hand, he took a seat beside Keith, close enough that their leg’s brushed with every slight movement.

It was Shiro’s turn, the last exchange. No explanation was needed, but he spoke a whole monologue anyway. Keith tuned him out, focusing only on the fluttery sensation he felt at the pit of his stomach every time Lance would twitch. He focused on how calm his breathing seemed, yet from the point where their legs pressed together, Keith could tell that his heartbeat was anything but calm.

“And so,” Shiro finalized, handing over a folder to the remaining club member. “I would like to present to you… this.”

Allura took it with gentle hands, taking out a sheet of paper from within. It seemed official, with a stamp and everything. Allura’s eyes lit up, looking up at Shiro. “You gave me… a star?”

“The only thing that could compare to a brilliant woman, like yourself,” Shiro smiled softly in return.

“He went and bought a star, did he,” Lance chuckled under his breath. “I thought that was our thing.”

“Stars are all so far away, but the most important is so close we forget that it even is a star,” Keith shrugged.

Lance nudged him with his shoulder, “Did my philosophies of a drunk inspire you?”

“Maybe,” Keith smirked. “Either way, I think I beat Allura.”

“Why’s that?” Lance blinked.

“Because I have the sun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and thank you all so much!  
> First things first, a HUUUGGGEEE thanks for my pal haircutsandsurgery on tumblr for helping me out with some details  
> Also, camisadophan (also on tumblr) who was such a babe and collaborated with me to make the playlist that Keith put on Lance's mixtape  
> The playlist can be found here: http://8tracks.com/caelestespiritu/do-starfish-dream-of-flying  
> The song Lance is singing to Shiro is called Muerte En Hawaii by Calle 13
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this extra long chapter, and be ready for some angst whenever I manage to update the next one!


	10. Secrets Are Hard To Keep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lighthearted conversation turns emotional and Keith snaps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all I'm very sorry.  
> I have warned you.

Keith was the last one to stay behind with Lance, clearing up the endless shreds of garland from the planetarium floor. They worked in comfortable silence, sweeping the place slowly, as if to drag the chore on. 

“Hey…” Lance broke the silence, leaning his head on the top of the old, disheveled broom. “I have been wondering this for a while but… why did you stay here during break?”

Keith stopped the repetitive motion, turning to face Lance with a perplexed expression. “What do you mean?”

“Like… don’t you have family to visit? Or is there a project you’re working on, like Coran?” Lance stretched out one of his arms, flicking his wrist left and right with each possibility. 

Shaking his head, Keith pushed up his sleeves, “Nah, It’s nothing like that.”

“Then what?”

There was a brief moment of silence within them, a mistrustful look peering from Keith’s narrow eyes. “It’s not that I don’t have places to visit…” He tried to explain, avoiding Lance’s gaze. “It’s more like… There is nowhere for me to go.”

“What do you mean there’s nowhere?” Lance was baffled, pushing himself off the broom’s handle. “There’s always SOMEWHERE.”

“And that somewhere is a place I’d rather not return to,” Keith stated with vicious simplicity, leaving Lance speechless as tension settles between them.

“Well,” Lance began again, pacing around the broom in a circular motion. “This could always be your somewhere.”

“Here?” Keith looked around the dimly lit planetarium. He had not been able to properly observe it until that moment, when the lights were so faded that the fluorescent constellations above them glowed like some sort of mystical map to faraway lands. Lands with a promise of endless possibilities just an arms’ reach away. He turned back to Lance, who had stopped right before him, leaning back on the broom handle with incredible balance, like the rebel in class who would lean his chair back to a ridiculous degree and still stay seated. “What about after graduation? I can’t just come back to this.”

“Maybe not the planetarium itself, then,” Lance shrugged. “Just this. The friends, the fun, the undoubtedly handsome fellow with the most amazing cheekbones in existence,” Lance pulled one of his hands to his face, posing in such a way that it was obvious he was describing himself. The loss of support caused the broom to shift, breaking his spell and sending him straight to the cold floor.

Keith could only laugh at the other man’s misfortune, letting him struggle for a moment before holding out his hand in assistance. Lance took it without another thought, pulling himself back to his feet. They stayed like that, hands still clasped together, watching each other in total silence aside from the sound of Keith’s dying laughter and Lance’s heavy breathing. Over the past few weeks, their presence around each other seemed to shift. Not in a sudden, clashing motion, but slowly, like gears in motion. Everything was changing and yet it felt the same.

“What about you?” Keith tore his hand away from Lance’s carefully. “Don’t you have places to visit?”

“I do… I just don’t get the opportunity,” Lance shrugged offhandedly, but he could sense Keith’s eyes on him. He wasn’t telling the whole truth and Keith could see that.

“So you WANT to go,” Keith prodded at him, urging for a real answer. Lance’s eyes turned away, distant. “You miss home?”

Lance flinched. Running a hand through his already messy brown curls. “Yeah,” He confessed. “I do but… It’s not like I can do anything about it.” He took a quick, deep breath, and tried to change the subject. “Tell me about your family.”

“What about them?” Keith narrowed his eyes. In the dim light, Lance’s features seemed almost skeletal, thin and sharp like blades.

“I just want to get to know you better,” Lance grinned, awaiting even the least bit of information he could gather from the unknowable mystery mullet.

“There is nothing to be said,” Keith scoffed. “I was tossed around foster care for a while until an odd couple decided to take pity on me and take me in for my last few years of high school. After only a month I found out that she was a bitch and he was an asshole. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

Lance’s eyes narrowed, “Not personally… how were they so?”

“I don’t know… they would just… They didn’t trust me with anything,” Keith tried to explain, spitting out the words like acid. It was clear he had not told this to anybody and he was not very comfortable speaking out loud about it. “I guess they saw me the same as some… stray pup that needed rescuing, but when they realized I was an actual human being they instantly regretted their decision.”

“Hey, you don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to,” Lance suggested, trying to calm down his agitated friend.

Lance’s words had the opposite effect on Keith. “You were the one who asked!”

“Well I was just curious,” Lance’s thin frame retreated into itself. “No need to yell-“

“Don’t you DARE tell me what to do!” Keith spat.

It was Lance’s turn to become irritated. “I was just trying to have a conversation, jeez. Sorry you have daddy issues.” He froze, immediately regretting those words as soon as they had left his mouth. His breathing was heavy.

Keith simmered, “If anybody has daddy issues is you! Have you even SEEN the way you act towards Shiro!?”

“Oy! Don’t make this about Shiro!” Lance fought back. “You’re the one that follows him everyone like some kind of dog-“

“Dog!?” Keith was in flames, something had snapped. He wasn’t thinking anymore. He wasn’t Keith. “You’re the one drooling all over the place every time Allura walks by!” He stepped forward, chest to chest with Lance, unaware at just how unreasonably shallow his breathing was.

“What the HELL man!?” Lance shoved him off. “I wouldn’t even touch Allura. Shiro has had dibs on her since like… forever!”

“Oh, so she’s an object now!?” Keith shoved him back. This wasn’t right. It wasn’t him. “What is it, Lance?”

“You know that’s not what I meant-“

“What. Is. It!?” Keith took a step closer and Lance took a step back, tripping over the discarded broom on the floor. He glared down at him, infuriated without a reason to be so. “Answer me, Lance!?” He paused, waiting for a reply from the taller man to no avail. That’s when he heard the short wheezing sounds, the shallow breaths. Lance was not getting up.

“Shit.” Keith snapped back into himself. This was wrong, this was all wrong. “Shit. Shit. Shit.” He kneeled down beside him to check if Lance was alright. “I’m sorry, I’m-“ He stumbled over his words, fumbling for his phone. 

This was not how it was supposed to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey hey ;w;  
> Lance's situation will be explained more in depth later. 
> 
> It is based on a similar condition my friend has, and I was reminded of that since both him and Lance have similar body types.  
> Keith's home situation is based on one of my favorite characters from a book I read some years ago, but I don't quite remember the name.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you have enjoyed this so far.


	11. Christmas In Scrubs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is taken to the hospital.  
> The gang gets together on Christmas day to visit him.

Christmas was not really a big deal for Keith, just an overhyped holiday to which he had no deep connections with, not even spiritual. These past few weeks, though, the small crowd of the planetarium club had been so excited for the holiday he could not help but look forward to it, no matter how much he tried to deny it. 

The way Shiro had explained Christmas tradition to Keith was quite simple. After Lance and Hunk returned from the chapel’s service, they would all meet in the commons for hot chocolate. Due to the fact that the bookshop was closed for the holiday, they had to fall back on the trusty ol’ coffee brewer which was about as old as it could be and still function with only somewhat minor technical difficulties. From there, they would try to catch one of the newest releases at a movie theatre in town or resort to watching all four home alone movies in a row. Hunk would later orchestrate a Christmas dinner with whatever the club members could supply and by bossing them around with small tasks around the kitchen in Allura’s apartment. Since the club was founded, that’s how Christmas was always spent with whatever members remained during the break, and Keith had been bubbling with unspoken excitement for getting to experience something like this. It would be as close to a family tradition as he could get. Nevertheless, things never went according to plan in Keith’s book.

The last place Keith expected to spend his first real Christmas was in a crowded hospital room. Truth be told, Keith did not expect any of this in the first place, but life was full of surprises.

“I suspect you are here for Mr. Sanchez?” A doctor walked up to the small gathering of planetarium club members nervously awaiting news in the, surprisingly crowded, waiting room. They had all met up that morning to pay Lance a visit and check on his status. Keith would’ve stayed there all night if it was not for Shiro practically dragging him back to the dorm room. When the students stood up, hungry for good news, the doctor gave them a crooked smile. “My name is Dr. Pakizer,” he introduced himself. “Your friend is in stable condition. He should be able to leave in a day or two.” 

A chorus of sighs filled the room. “Can we see him?” Shiro asked first, relief washing his features.

“Of course,” the doctor pulled up his clipboard. “He is currently under painkillers, so his conscious may not be under his complete control. We just ask that family steps in first before any of you to go through some of his medical history.”

“His family isn’t gonna be able to come,” Allura explained calmly. The doctor only nodded and motioned them to follow in his stead. 

“What exactly happened?” Shiro frowned, trying to get a look at the clipboard.  
Dr. Pakizer turned it the other way, “His lung collapsed in on itself. If he had not been brought here in time, his brain would have suffered severe damage from lack of oxygen.” Keith felt his chest tighten. “Thankfully, he was brought in just in time. We are emptying out his lung and slowly inflating it once more. From his records, this has not been the first time this happened.”

At that comment, all the students turned at once to face Hunk. Keith wasn’t sure what this meant until he remembers Lance mentioning in one of their late night texts that the both of them went to the same middle school and high school after Lance transferred schools. Keith did not know where he transferred from or why, but he did not feel the need to ask. 

Hunk cowered with the weight of everyone’s stares. “Y-yeah… It happened twice when we were in high school,” he explained as they walked. “Both during the fall of his senior year.”

“It’s been two years,” Coran scratched his head. “Why would it happen now, all of a sudden?”

“According to files sent by his past doctor,” Dr. Pakizer flipped through his clipboard. “It’s the combination of his weight and height. He grew too fast in a short amount of time and he is underweight, but his metabolism is too fast for him to catch up to it. His body is just not meant to handle large amounts of stress.”

“Could this happen again?” Allura wondered worriedly. 

“I doubt it,” Dr. Pakizer let go of the papers and shoved the clipboard back under his arm. “He is recuperating swiftly. His lung shouldn’t be a problem.”

They approached a door half-opened to which Dr. Pakizer motioned them toward. The group filed in, not sure what to expect on the other side of the curtain.

There he was, in all his drugged glory, with two tubes sticking out of his side and a smaller tube of oxygen around his face with an opening beneath each nostril. He was too busy trying to retell some sort of incomprehensible story to the blonde nurse beside him to notice his friends when they first walked in, but as soon as he heard the door shut behind them his attention was all theirs.

“Guuuyyssss,” Lance called to them, stretching out a wired hand to beckon them. The group gathered around his bed, taking the seats across from him. “You made it,” He slurred, face beaming with a tired smile. “Did you know it’s Christmas?” He turned to the nurse. “Tell them, tell them it’s Christmas.” He did not even allow her to answer. “It’s a happy day.”

“Yeah, Lance,” Hunk dropped a duffel bag by the window. “I brought you some clothes and stuff.”

“Awwww, Hunk you’re AWESOME,” Lance chuckled, wincing slightly at the movement.

The nurse carefully checked his tubes, “Careful there. We don’t want you getting too worked up.”

“Then someone better get Keith out of the room,” Allura muttered under her breath just loud enough for her voice to be heard. The boys were trying their best not to laugh, but Keith seemed offended.

“I’m not gonna fight with him,” He defended himself, earning an amused eye roll from the woman.

“I’m not talking about fighting.”

The men who were already trying to contain their laughter could not hold much longer and at the sound of Lance’s pulse rising when he finally realized what Allura had implied did not help. 

“Excuse me, but if you stress out the patient like this, we’re going to have to ask you to leave,” the nurse stated rather seriously. The men composed themselves that instant.

It may not have been the Christmas Keith expected, but at least there was still hot chocolate and they were able to stream some Christmas movies from Lance’s laptop, which Hunk had brought in the duffel bag. It was not picture perfect, but it was something, and Keith would not have been happier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update!  
> Lance is fine(:  
> Sorry to make you guys worry like that  
> Thank you for all the support so far!  
> A little shoutout to my brah who wanted a cameo in this, so I added him in as the doctor.
> 
> I hope you have enjoyed the story so far!


	12. Who Even Is Tommy Wiseau?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Late night skype calls

Listening to his own heartbeat amplified by the hospital equipment unnerved Lance to various degrees. Together with just how cold and desolate hospital rooms were, he could not claim a wink of sleep. The doctors said he would only have to stick around for a day or two while he recuperated, but Lance was already tired of the overly enthusiastic nurses and doctors nodding along and repeating “just a while longer.”

Lance was exhausted. He stared at his laptop screen, propped up on a pillow to keep his neck from wanting to kill itself as he scrolled through ebay. He had only placed the object up for sale that morning, but it did not hurt to check. It was a bit overpriced, but he could not take any chances.

 

_**dont-touchmemotherfucker** has sent a friend request_

 

Lance stared at the skype notification until it disappeared. He turned his attention to the time, reading 2:43 AM at the corner of his screen. Out of curiosity, he opens up skype and accepts the friend request. The response is almost immediate.

 

 **dont-touchmemotherfucker:** hey  
**dont-touchmemotherfucker:** r u awake?

 

He wondered whether he should respond or not. The username was not familiar, and it did not seem to be a reference to anything he recognized. Then again, it was quite late and he was not planning to sleep anytime soon. It was probably one of his tumblr followers anyways, so there was not any immediate risk.

 

 **Sir Lancelot:** ye

_**dont-touchmemotherfucker** is calling_

 

The call rang for a couple of seconds, illuminating Lance’s confused expression. This stranger was video calling him, in the middle of the night, without properly introducing himself. His mind was going crazy with warning signs and red flags, but his boredom got the better of him. Be it a stalker or an overly excited follower, he accepted the call, making sure to disable his camera in the process.

The last thing he expected was Keith’s sleep deprived expression in terrible resolution. He was in the middle of sliding a headband on to keep his bangs away from his face, squinting his eyes at his own screen to use the skype call as his personal mirror. Lance’s heart skipped a beat unprepared.

“Your camera is off,” Keith broke the silence.

Lance finally snapped out of his trance, turning the video back on and praying to God that the darkness concealed his blush. “I thought you didn’t use skype.”

“I didn’t,” Keith replied simply, pausing for a moment to contemplate his words. “I just wanted to see you.” His expression was devoid of warmth or embarrassment, and the pixelated image made it even harder to find anything that resembled emotion, but Lance swore that he felt his chest tighten at the sound of his words.

Lance being Lance, replied with a joke. “Seeing your ugly mug at 3 in the morning reminds me of horror movies.” He kicked himself for that, wishing for a clean, painless death after insulting Keith.

Keith only grinned in return, reaching his nightstand to grab the grumpy cat mug Coran gifted him just a couple of days prior. “Don’t be rude. It has feelings too, you know?” He sipped whatever liquid it contained before putting it back down on the nightstand.

Lance broke out into a short fit of laughter, schooling himself back into composure before a nurse could walk in. “You’re a threat,” He chuckled. “They’re going to ban you from this room.”

“I thought laughter was the best medicine,” Keith shrugged. “I must’ve been lied to.”

“You could’ve at least warned me before suddenly making a skype,” Lance finally calmed his breathing.

“I did,” Keith replied simply. “I sent you a text before I sent the invite. I included my username and everything.”

Lance turned to the windowsill, where his phone sat charging for the night. “Ah… that makes SO much more sense,” he ran his fingers through his short hair. “What’s up with that username though? Trying to be edgy?”

“It’s a reference to the absolute worst movie in existence,” Keith narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

“The Bee Movie?”

“No.”

“Night at the Museum?”

“Only the third one was bad.”

“Leave Lancelot OUT of this!”

This time it was Keith that ripped through a fit of giggles, using the back of his had to cover his mouth.

“What is it then? Bedtime Stories? Scooby Doo 2? National Treasure?”

“The Room.” Keith coughed out in between fits of calming laughter.

Lance blinked. “What?”

“You’re telling me… You’ve never watched The Room?”

They stared at each other in silence before Lance spoke. “I… don’t know what that is.”

“Ugh,” Keith shoved the heels of his palms into his eyes. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Is it seriously that bad? It sounds like some shitty comedy to me,” Lance shrugged.

“You’re tearing me APART, Lance,” Keith flopped back overdramatically, out of view.

“You can just show it to me,” Lance suggested. “I could stream it right now on my own.”

Keith sat back up faster than Lance could open up a new tab. “No. I want to personally be there when you watch it.”

Lance shrugged nonchalantly. “Well I ain’t complaining.”

Keith’s expression relaxed into soft amusement, causing Lance’s poor heart to skip yet another beat. He cursed the hospital equipment for broadcasting his heartrate, and prayed to God and all saints that Keith did not notice just how quickly it sped up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again!  
> Thank you for sticking around so far~  
> After all,  
> these boys got a ways to go still
> 
> I would like to thank my friend camisadophan on tumblr for helping me out with this chapter
> 
> If you guys have any questions about the room, go to them.
> 
> They even run a facts blog about it.
> 
> I hope you have enjoyed this chapter~  
> and I LOVE to hear from you guys.  
> hmu on tumblr: quincyisawreckingball or princess-of-slaughter


	13. Paint Me Like One of Your French Paladins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance gets a recorder and Keith gets everyone (sans Pidge) to watch The Room

It was a new kind of relief that swept over Keith when he heard Hunk’s exasperated “Lance, please stop!” echo through the stairwell. He had accompanied Shiro that morning to help carry coffee for everyone. Lance had been back for about a day, but he had spent that first day in his dorm trying his best to calm his worried mother and convince her that he was fine. Keith had been worried that Lance had somehow bribed the doctors to let him out early, but seeing him in the flesh using a table as a stage cleared those concerns in an instant.

That is when Keith noticed Lance was not playing the saxophone, but rather a plastic recorder in a translucent blue. He was playing the mitchirineko march on loop, dangling his feet from the edge of the table as he swayed to the beat of the song. Coran and Allura seemed pleased with the choice of song, but Hunk did not share their opinion. 

“Do you only know how to play songs on loop?” Keith directed the question to Lance as soon as he touched the bottom of the staircase. Shiro stepped to the side, walking over to one of the tables at the center to put down the cups of coffee. 

Lance shot Keith a glare, taking his question as a personal offence. He stopped playing just to be able to jump off the table and immediately broke into an off key solo of My Heart Will Go On. Either he had not played it before, or he was hitting the wrong notes just to irritate Keith. Either way, Keith was cringing badly as Lance approached him, increasing the volume of the terrible sound. He moved dramatically around Keith, serenading him with the torturous song in spite. He reached the chorus the third time around, hitting a high note so off key that Keith had to rip the recorder from his grasp to stop him from breaking his eardrums. 

“That was horrible,” Keith deadpanned, holding the recorder behind him, out of Lance’s reach.

“From one to The Roommate, how bad was it?” Lance grinned.

Shiro turned towards them, “Are you talking about me?”

Keith shook his head, “Never compare that… noise to The Room.”

“What is that?” Shiro asked, joining the conversation now that they had his attention.

“You too?” Keith pushed his hair back in disbelief. “Has anybody in this room ACTUALLY watched The Room?”

Shiro and Allura exchanged a look, but both shook their head. Hunk and Coran also seemed lost in the current subject. Keith felt like he was speaking a foreign language among his peers.

“I’ve never heard of it,” Coran shrugged. “Is it like that one movie that you’re not supposed to talk about? What was it-“

“Fight Club,” Hunk answered.

Keith slammed his hand on the closest table. “Rule one about Fight Club, You don’t talk about Fight Club… ever!”

“You just talked about it,” Lance smirked.

Keith groaned, twirling the recorder in his hand. “I honestly can’t believe you guys.”

“Well… how about we watch it all together?” Allura suggested.

Coran agreed, “club bonding exercise!”

Keith sighed, “This is a bad idea.”

Lance walked up to him, throwing an arm around the shorter man’s shoulders. “Don’t be such a Debbie downer, Keithy-boy. Just stream the movie.”

It did not take much convincing to get Keith to set up one of their laptops to stream the movie. They had moved to the commons of Hunk and Lance’s dorm building, where Hunk helped Keith plug in the computer to the TV, so it would be easier for the whole group to watch. 

All six of them tried to pile into one couch, resulting with Keith and Lance on the ground and Coran perched on one of the arm rests while the other three comfortably lounged on the piece of furniture. As payback for leaving them on the cold floor, Lance stole all the cushions and piled them along with a Star Wars blanket he had gathered from his room. It was comfortable enough for him and Keith to lay on and still be able to watch the movie, so there were no more complaints for the rest of the afternoon.

In the midst of all the cringing and groaning, Keith turned to face Lance. The sun-kissed man held a hand to his mouth, holding back laughter as he watched the movie. He noticed Keith’s eyes on him and looked at him out of the corner of his eye.

Looking as uninterested as he could, Keith recited the scene from memory. “You’re scaring me,” he paused for a moment, waiting for the actress to stand up. “You are lying, I never hit you… you are TEARING ME APART, LISA!” Lance couldn’t handle it anymore and broke into a fit of chuckles. “Why are you so hysterical!? Do you understand why?... Do you?” Keith looked at Lance again, watching the man wheeze in silent laughter. He just rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t help but smile as well. There was just something terribly endearing about Lance choking on his own laughter because of something that was not even that funny in the first place.

Keith buried his face in the storm trooper print, focusing on the sound of Lance’s erratic laughter dying out and the sharp scent of his detergent on the blanket. He never felt more like home until that moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! updates will be much slower b/c I'll be moving into my dorm soon
> 
> Thank you for all the support!  
> If ya have any questions about the room, my friend is an EXPERT (she even runs a fact blog on it) so go talk to her. She's on tumblr as camisadophan.
> 
> Thank you all for reading and I hope you have enjoyed this so far. <3


	14. That One Time Lance Was A Gymnast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the new year! And the club has its weird traditions as always.

“I am an adult and I can make my own decisions,” Lance crossed his arms, eyes narrowed at the club president who was currently holding the only bottle of wine in the room.

“You are not very known for your good judgement, Lance,” Shiro tilted his body away from Lance, keeping the bottle as far away from him as he could. “I refuse to give alcohol to those underage.”

“Come on, man,” Lance whined, “It’s only one more year.”

“Go drink your grape juice, Lance,” Corran shooed him away. “You ain’t getting anything from Shiro.”

Lance huffed, taking a seat on one of the benches. The planetarium club was putting together some food and drinks to celebrate the new year. Such a celebration would usually involve booze of some kind, but after the Lance New Years’ Incident, Shiro swore to keep any and all alcohol as far away from that man as he could. In its stead, the club president set a rule that all underage members in the club would drink grape juice instead of wine.

“This is a dumb rule,” The sun-kissed man grumbled from his spot on the bench.

Shiro just shook his head, “You are the reason that rule had to be made in the first place, so you have no right to complain.”

“I dent the hood of ONE car-“

“It was the Dean’s car,” Shiro interrupted him, putting the wine bottle inside a bag, where Corran had stuffed more drinks and food for the evening. “We had to use the club funds to pay for it.”

Lance had learned long ago that fighting with Shiro over money or any type of fees was a bad idea. If it was not for his previous experiences of such fights with Shiro, Lance might have defended his right to pay for his own fees, instead, he changed the subject. “That was a sick flip though, you gotta admit.”

“Not quite Olympic gymnast material,” Corran spoke up. “I would have given it a 6.”

“What!? That flip was at LEAST a 7!” Lance jumped to his feet almost immediately.

“It was at least a pair of broken legs and a concussion and you were lucky enough to have survived with only a twisted ankle,” Shiro zipped the bag shut, staring right at Lance with condescending eyes. “I don’t want anybody else jumping off of ledges, balconies, roofs, or even the top bunk.”

“Yes dad…” Lance lowered his gaze, filled with guilt over his own terrible choices.

Shiro sighed, shaking his head. “Come on, just help me set up outside. The others should be back soon.”

The three men set up some blankets on the snow-covered courtyard, clad in sweaters and even more blankets as they organized the food and drink at arms’ reach. It was pretty cold for a winter evening, dark as oblivion aside from a few street lights illuminating the courtyard and the hundreds of stars above their heads. 

The first to show up was Hunk with three boxes of warm pizza cradled in his arms. He set them down in the middle of the blanket layout, taking a seat between Lance and Corran. He reached for the drinks, getting his hand slapped when his hand got a little too close to Shiro’s wine bottle. Instead, he grabbed one of the individual grape juice bottles, backing up to the edge of the blanket with three pizza slices stacked on top of each other.

Allura and Keith did not take long to join the rest of the group, hoarding two bags full of sparklers and cheesy new years’ decorations that Allura had insisted on getting. They make a spot for themselves between Shiro and Lance, immediately digging into the increasingly cooling food.

There was a warm feeling in the pit of Lance’s stomach as his friends laughed to one of his silly jokes or when he put on a pair of ridiculous shades shaped like the numbers of the new year. It was the sort of feeling that made him forget just how far he was from home. For a moment, there was nothing else in the world other than these people, the cold winter air, and the stars above their heads. 

“Alright,” Allura clapped her hands. “Regrets and resolutions.”

Keith’s complex expression was obvious even in the dim light, but the title of the game was enough to not need an explanation like the rest of the planetary club’s weird traditions. He turned to Allura, who by suggesting the game had also volunteered as the first to go. 

She folded her hands together on her lap, gripping the oversized “Space Dad” sweater that was obviously Shiro’s. “My regret this year was not being able to finish Grey’s Anatomy in one go like I promised myself I would,” She shook her head. “My resolution for the new year will be to finish Bones in one go.”

“Not with your senior thesis coming up,” Hunk muttered under his breath.

“Oh hush, I will do it, just you watch.”

“That’s what you said about the past three series you promised yourself you would binge watch.”

Shiro could not help but laugh softly at the vice president’s expense. “Alright, alright… My regret is not being able to reach our charity goals this year, but my resolution is to reach them this next year. I know you guys can help me do this.”

“Always thinking of the children first,” Lance sighed dramatically. 

Shiro smiled at that, taking the bottle of wine from the pile and beginning to pour it for the two seniors and the only junior of age in the group.

“My only regret… Is not being able to make it to finals at the campus No-Shave November competition,” Corran clenched his shirt in dramatized hurt. 

“Man, you had such a nice beard growing too,” Lance shook his head. “You deserved that chocolate medal.”

“Maybe next year,” Shiro patted the man on the shoulder, handing him a cup of wine with an encouraging smile.

“Of course,” Corran grinned. “My resolution this year is to get into the internship program at one of the big automobile companies.”

“Dream big, champ,” Lance held up his own cup of grape juice in toast of that resolution. He turned to Hunk, taking a sip of his drink. “How about you?”

Hunk rubbed the back of his neck, “Well… I guess my regret would be to have burned the angel cake I was supposed to bake for my final, but my resolution is to finally get that online bakery up and running this year.”

“Alright, my turn,” Lance clapped once, rubbing his hands together under his Star Wars blanket, which was draped over him like a cocoon. “My regret is-“

“Your whole life?” Keith interrupted, a sly smirk gleaming softly under the dim starlight.

Lance shoved him playfully to the side, “I’ve had a pretty good life, excuse you.” Keith chuckled under his breath and Lance could not help but smile. “My regret… is not being as honest as I should have been,” Lance’s voice lowered, glancing at Keith for only a split second before turning his gaze somewhere else. “My resolution this year is to finally get some things finally crossed out of my bucket list.”

“Like what? Skydiving?” Hunk asked.

“Swimming with dolphins?” Corran suggested.

“Finding a life?”

“Okay Hunk, stop it,” Lance raised his hands in surrender. “Either way, my turn is over.”

They turned to Keith, waiting for him to finish the circle. He cleared his throat, thinking about how he could answer. “Okay… my resolution-“

“Woah, slow down, Keithy boy,” Lance cut him off. “You have to start with your regret.”

“Right…” Keith brushed his bangs back with his gloved fingers. “My regret…” He looked around the circle at his friends’ expectant gazes. “My regret would probably be not joining this club sooner.” Smiles formed all around him at his answer and Lance could not tell of it was embarrassment or the cold that caused his cheeks to turn a dark pink. “My resolution would be… to try harder…. You all try your hardest at everything you do so… I want to try my hardest as well.”

“That’s so sweet,” Allura leaned over to hug Keith, who hesitated a second before hugging her back. 

The group returned to pleasant conversation, laughing and smiling through the twenty degree temperatures. They huddled closer as they retold anecdotes from the past year, laughing at Lance’s expense from all the time he made a fool of himself. Partway through the evening, Keith stole Lance’s blanket and huddled underneath it, shoulder to shoulder with the taller man. They said nothing to each other, enjoying the comfortable silence and Allura’s embarrassing stories from Shiro’s sophomore year. 

The chatter slowed as midnight crept closer and the club members decided to start lighting up the sparklers, holding them out and drawing shapes before themselves. Allura drew a heart towards Shiro, which he returned with a heart of his own. Corran began the countdown with his sparkler, drawing out the numbers, and soon everyone else joined in. 

“Five!”

Allura raised her cup of wine in celebration.

“Four!”

Shiro leaned his head on top of hers, eyes as bright as the sparklers themselves.

“Three!”

Hunk was already reaching out for a bag of grapes sitting in the middle of the food pile Shiro and Corran had provided.  
“Two!”

Corran almost set his mustache on fire by holding the sparkler a little too close to his face.

“One!”

Lance picked up his hand from under the blankets, reaching around Keith to turn his face.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!” The group cheered in unison, and at the stroke of midnight, Lance pulled Keith towards him and placed his lips squarely on his own. It tasted of grape juice and felt like the sparklers had been lit inside the pit of his stomach. The moment they broke apart, staring at each other through half-lidded gazes, Lance cracked a smile. 

“Happy new year, Keithy boy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM BACK FROM THE DEAD
> 
> I love you guys so much!  
> I'm sorry for being gone so long
> 
> I'm still trying to get used to college life  
> It's a mess, but I'm getting there
> 
> Planetarium club is cool tho, I gotta admit
> 
> Your guys' support has helped me out a LOT during some rough times these past two weeks, and I cant thank you guys enough
> 
> I will try to update as soon as possible, but I'm not sure when that will be.  
> Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week  
> stay tuned
> 
> Thank you all for reading and I hope you have enjoyed the story so far!  
> I love to hear your guys' opinions and ideas so PLEASE talk to me  
> I'm a lonely person
> 
> HMU on tumblr dot com, I'm quincyisawreckingball 
> 
> Have a wonderful day (or night or morning or whatever!)


	15. Give Me Chocolate Or Give Me Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith gets a date???

Getting back into the swing of classes took some getting used to, but Keith and Lance managed to easily fall back into their academic rivalry as soon as they realized they were in the same physics course. Neither of them were morning people, and an 8:30 course was the last thing they wanted to deal with, but a competition over who could finish the handout faster proved to wake them up better than a cup of freshly brewed coffee would.

Lance continued to bring his recorder to club meetings rather than his saxophone, and would learn a different song every week to play on repeat much to Hunk and Pidge’s annoyance. Nobody mentioned the change in instrument, but Keith could not help but wonder what happened to the jazzy monstrosity.

Regretfully, Keith could not find the time to ask Lance about it. Their daily texts did not seem like a good idea, and during the physics lecture they were both either too tired or too immersed in it to think about much else. Keith’s theory was that the saxophone was probably the school’s and the band director had wanted it returned for a saxophone ensemble or orchestra rehearsals. He did not think it would be past Lance to borrow an instrument for a few weeks without permission, so he kept the theory to himself and decided to drop the issue for the time being.

There was also the thing about New Years. Keith thought back about their brief kiss Christmas Eve, and how he never had much of a chance to bring it up either. Their most recent kiss however, that one was harder for Keith to ignore. He could blame the first one on their friends, or the mistletoe, but there was nothing that he could use to brush this one off. He tapped his finger on his desk, trying to find something else to focus on rather than the feeling of their shoulders subtly brushing up against each other, or the way he smiled so smugly after telling an especially terrible joke. The worst of all was the memory of Lance’s lips against his own, and the warmth of his breath at such close range in the freezing winter night.

Keith sneezed into his sleeve, shocking his thoughts back into the present and the professor he was supposed to be paying attention to. He tried to do just that, but a text from Lance immediately distracted him once more.

 

From: Lance☆  
yo, keithy boy

To: Lance☆  
Y do u even call me that?

From: Lance☆  
b/c I want to

From: Lance☆  
anyways

From: Lance☆  
i was wondrin if u had any plans for sat

From: Lance☆  
not like I care or anythin

 

Keith peeked at the professor, who had his back turned to the class and was busy writing out a time line of the American civil war. He looked back at his phone.

 

To: Lance☆  
Is this a club activity?

From: Lance☆  
not rly

To: Lance☆  
Is it ur birthday or smth?

From: Lance☆  
a bday on v-day

From: Lance☆  
that would be n0ice

From: Lance☆  
but nah, my bday is in aug

From: Lance☆  
cosest bday we have is probs Shiro’s in a few months

To: Lance☆  
Ur terrible misspellings are killing me

From: Lance☆  
i don have autocorrec lik SOME ppl

From: Lance☆  
wait

From: Lance☆  
ur the only bday we don’t kno

To: Lance☆  
And u care because….

From: Lance☆  
ur part of the club, MAN

From: Lance☆  
We ae obligated to bring u a whole cake on ur bday

To: Lance☆  
My birthday was last week

From: Lance☆  
Y WAS I NEVER INFORMED

From: Lance☆  
NAH BRO

From: Lance☆  
were celebrating ur bday on saturday

From: Lance☆  
NO EXCUSES

 

Keith had to cover his mouth to keep himself from snorting out loud at the texts.

 

To: Lance☆  
Fine

To: Lance☆  
But there better be chocolate cake

From: Lance☆  
OFC THERELL BE CHOCOLATE CAKE

From: Lance☆  
THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT WOULD BE RUINED WITHOUT ANY CHOCOLATE CAKE

 

Keith exited out of his messages, looking over the calendar app on his phone. He scrolled to Saturday, reading out the date silently: February 14th. He bit on the hand covering his mouth.

What could this mean?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little short, but the next one will have more deep conversation about all the issues these two nerds have been dealing with
> 
> Thank you for all the support!  
> I love hearing from you guys (:
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter~


	16. You Are The Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter, the finale.   
> Let these poor boys finally be happy for once.

Lance was from a big family. He was used to plans changing every five minutes and having to rearrange his schedule a million times. This proved to be helpful when he asked Shiro why Keith had not shown up to planetarium club during that week’s meeting.

“Keith?” Shiro arched an eyebrow at the thin man slouching against the wall. He had been testing out the planetarium controls up until that moment, making sure that they were in good condition for an event they were hosting for the local middle school’s annual fair. 

Lance nodded, “Yeah, he usually comes with you. I know for sure he doesn’t have a class at this time.”

“Keith just caught a bad cold,” Shiro turned back to the control panel. “He just needs to rest up for the weekend so he can go to his Monday lecture.”

“The whole weekend!?” Lance’s voice almost cracked.

Shiro chuckled softly under his breath, “I don’t know how it works for you, but colds take days to overcome.”

Pidge peeked their head from under the control panel. “Were you planning something with him this weekend, lover boy?” Their voice hissed through their smirk, clearly amused by Lance in general. “Unless you plan on getting sick as well, I suggest you cash a rain check. Unless you have a thing for catching other people’s germs.”

Lance’s face twisted into pure disgust. “Pidge, stop that, that’s gross.”

“Pidge’s right,” Shiro agreed without looking back at Lance. “You’ll get sick too if you get too close to him.”

Lance just sighed, leaning his head back into the wall. He stared up at the stars painted overhead which flickered on and off with every button that Shiro tested. Space was an endless void or mystery, but staring up at these fake stars brought calm upon Lance. He closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them his plans had already changed.

On Valentine’s day, he found himself outside of Keith and Shiro’s dorm room with a his backpack slung on one shoulder and a box cradled in his arms. Originally, he had planned to meet Keith in the commons, but with Keith’s current condition, that idea was properly scraped. Instead, he was standing before the door, staring at the two colorful lion heads with “Shiro” and “Keith” scrawled over them as name tags. Lance stared into the eyes of Keith’s lion, a bright red with fierce golden eyes, willing himself to open the door.

He did not have to, for Shiro opened it not even a second after. They stared at each other for a few moments and Shiro cracked a smile. “You better not catch his cold,” He nodded at him, stepping out of the room and holding the door for Lance to walk through.

“I have an immune system of steel,” Lance bragged, walking past Shiro. “No cold can beat me.”

“Whatever you say, Lance,” Shiro let go of the door, allowing it to close again.

“Alright,” Lance muttered to himself. “I’m already here so there’s no turning back…” With that, he made his way to Keith’s side room, opening the door to peek inside. 

Keith was sitting up on his bed, catching up on the readings for his history course. When Lance walked into the room, Keith turned his head to the side slightly, expecting to see Shiro, but when he noticed who it was his face expressed mild surprise.

“Lance… what-“

“I said there would be cake, didn’t I?” Lance pulled a confident smile, holding up the box a little higher. “They only had chocolate with raspberry filling, though.”

Keith blinked, “That’s… fine…” He sneezed to the side, sniffling a few times as he reached for the almost empty box of tissues, blowing his nose and throwing the used tissue on top of a growing mountain of them on the trash bin across the room. 

Lance put the box on top of the bookshelf, shrugging his backpack off his shoulder and placing it on top of a chair. “Since our date was kind of ruined since you had to go and get sick, I brought you some stuff.”

Keith blinked his exhausted eyes, “So… it WAS a date…”

“Are you dumb or something? Valentines’ day, hello?” Lance opened his backpack, feeling silly for even calling it a date with how Keith reacted to it. “I mean…” He stopped himself. “Unless you didn’t want it to be.” He stood there, staring at his backpack as he shuffled through its contents. 

The room was silent for what seemed like an eternity, and Lance grew increasingly worried that he had said something he was not supposed to. “Look-“

“Another day,” Keith interrupted him. 

Lance raised his head to look at the other man. Keith was hiding his face in his book, which he had pulled up as a shield. “You can take me on a date another day,” Keith repeated.

Lance grinned at that, turning back to his backpack to pull out a Ziploc bag and a blanket. “How about next weekend if you finally beat that cold’s ass?”

“It’s a date,” Keith agreed awkwardly, rather amused at the careless way Lance worded it.

Lance stretched out his Star Wars blanket on the bed, along with the rest of Keith’s blankets, creating a sort of blanket nest. Keith watched him from his place, curled up against the wall in the corner of his mattress. He grew confused as Lance kicked off his shoes and stood on top of the bed instead, taking the Ziploc bag with him. 

“What are you doing?” Keith asked him, putting his textbook to the side. 

“Well, after everything that happened last year… “ Lance opened the Ziploc bag and took out what Keith finally recognized as glow-in-the-dark stars. He reached up and stared sticking them on the ceiling as far as he could reach. “I was talking to Shiro about why you seemed to snap at everything, and he told me it had to do with the way you overthink things.”

“Shiro told you that?” Keith narrowed his eyes, expecting some sort of offhand comment from Lance, but receiving nothing of the sort.

Instead, Lance just continued to stick the stars to the ceiling above Keith. “I just thought maybe having something to fill the darkness might help you if that ever happens again,” He shrugged as if it was the most obvious answer. He turned his head to look at Keith. “Do you know how hard these are to find? I thought they would be everywhere, but nooooo.” He pulled another star and stuck it on the ceiling. “These things are impossible to find.”

Keith just blinked, staring at Lance as he continued to set up a whole galaxy on his dorm ceiling. After he finished, Lance jumped back down, taking a seat beside Keith in the nest of blankets they had created. 

“Why?” Keith furrowed his eyebrows, staring Lance down.

The other man blinked, “Huh?”

“Why do you do this for me?”

Lance looked at Keith, trying to read his hardened expression. “What do you mean why? Because I want to.”

“I meant why?” Keith’s voice was a rippling poison. “Why do you bother to bring me things I never asked for? Why are you so intent at being my friend? Why did you kiss me?” He stopped for a second, recollecting his thoughts. “I don’t understand… Is this a joke? Is it something you just… do?... why is every detail so important to you? After I lash out again and again… you just… come back, and I don’t understand why.”

They stared at each other for moments at a time, frozen in a silent attempt to figure the other out. 

Lance blinked first, shifting his weight to pull one of his knees to his chest. “I do that because I like you.”

Keith’s eyes widened at that, searching Lance’s expression. The taller of the two had lost the ever present confident smile, and instead he wore a self-conscious one. He turned his gaze to look at Keith’s hands rather than his eyes. “What do you mean…?”

Lance let out a frustrated groan. “I thought that was self-explanatory,” He turned his whole body towards Keith. “I. Like. You. Okay? I’ve liked you since you transferred. I think you’re hot, I like your sarcasm a lot, and I feel like you’re the only one that truly listens to me. I like you, Keith, a lot.”

Lance waited for a response, but all he got from Keith was a blink and a broken “Wha-.” Without any thought behind it, he just leaned forward and kissed Keith. It was sudden and forceful, shocking the smaller of the two guys. When Lance pulled away, Keith’s eyes were wide for just a second before they narrowed softly with bubbling laughter. 

It took Lance a moment to realize that Keith was not laughing at him, but it was in fact a laugh of relief. It was the sound of the world finally making sense. It was the sound of someone who had finally found his place. It was a beautiful sound, and Lance hoped he would get to hear it more often.

“I’m sorry,” Keith sniffled between broken chuckles. “I just… I get it now.”

“Finally!” Lance threw himself back, laying on top of Keith’s bed, across his lap. “So? How about you?”

“What?”

“Do you like me? I mean… How could you NOT?” Lance pretended to look at his nails. “I am practically the best guy around.”

Keith shook his head in amusement, “Well… yeah… Yeah, I guess you can say… same.”

“Wow, that’s romantic,” Lance narrowed his eyes, unamused. 

Keith chuckled again, using the sleeve of his sweatshirt to wipe his runny nose. “right, like your saxophone playing was any more romantic.”

“First of all, don’t use your sleeve, that’s disgusting,” Lance nudged Keith’s knee. “Second, don’t you dare insult my interpretation of Careless Whisper. It’s a masterpiece, you’re just uncultured.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “Right… what even happened to that monstrosity of yours?”

“I don’t have it anymore,” Lance shrugged. 

“Were you renting it?” Keith asked curiously, but Lance just shook his head. “Then what happened to it?”

Lance shifted his head towards the plastic stars littering Keith’s ceiling. “I sold it.”

Keith watched Lance, waiting for more explanation than just that vague answer. 

Giving in, Lance sighed. “I sold it to pay for the hospital bills,” he explained. “My parents spent all their money sending me to college, so I don’t even have the funds to visit them during break since I’m an out-of-state student.” He paused for a few seconds, evening his breath. “I am allowed to stay in campus without pay because of a scholarship I got for my GPA in high school. The only thing of monetary value that I own is that saxophone, so I sold it to pay what my insurance didn’t cover.”

“So… that’s why you have the recorder now?” Keith asked softly.

“Yeah,” Lance shrugged. “It’s something, at least.” He sat up, turning to face Keith. “Since we’re playing twenty questions, mind telling me why you did not tell us about your birthday?”

“Ah, well I just did not think you guys would care about it,” Keith tilted his head away. “Birthdays are useless and trivial.”

“What!? No, birthdays are very important,” Lance insisted. 

“It’s just a typical day, why would someone make it special?” Keith replied with a sour expression.

“Because it is YOURS,” Lance pulled Keith’s face so their eyes met. “It’s your day. It’s a day for all of us to treat you to whatever you want.”

Keith slapped Lance’s hand away, “That’s called being selfish.”

“Sometimes it’s okay to be a little selfish,” Lance set his hand down. “After all, you aren’t any less important than the rest of us, so let us spoil you.”

Keith did not reply, but his silence made it obvious that Lance had won that argument. 

“Speaking of spoiling… think we should start eating that cake?” Lance suggested. “I heard chocolate is good for the sick.”

“That’s a lie,” Keith finally cracked a smile. 

“I’m an expert on these things, Keith,” Lance insisted. “Ask the Science.”

“The Science,” Keith echoed in disbelief.

Lance nodded, and stood up, bringing the box over to the bed along with some plastic forks he had brought along. He took a seat beside Keith, setting the box carefully between them. Handing one of the forks to Keith, he took the lid off the box. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, spelling out “Happy Birthday, Keith!” in red frosting.

“I would have lit a candle so you could make a wish, but those are banned in the dorm rooms so…” Lance shrugged.

“Its fine,” Keith just smiled. “Thank you.”

Lance grinned back at Keith and they settled into comfortable silence. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent curled up on the blanket nest, watching 80’s sci-fi movies on Keith’s laptop and eating mouthfuls of chocolate cake. It was simple, and not what Lance had originally planned for Valentine’s day, but it was something.

“Roses are red,  
Violets are blue.”

Lance muttered out loud as they draped across the blankets in the darkness of Keith’s room. The sun was setting, letting in minimum sunlight. The room was dark enough that the plastic stars were beginning to glow, so they stared up at them and were trying to make their own constellations.

“I don’t know how to rhyme…”

Keith snickered, “Alright, let me try,” He coughed into his elbow.

“Roses are red,   
Violets are blue.  
There are millions of stars,  
But none shine as bright as you.”

Lance cracked a smile, turning his head to look at Keith. “Now THAT’S romantic.”

Keith smiled back and Lance’s heart flipped inside his chest. If you had asked him at that very moment, what the definition of happiness was, he would have probably described that moment. The scent of ground cinnamon, the taste of raspberries and chocolate, and the sound of a bubbling laugh that rang like the cathedral bells from his hometown. That was what Lance believed happiness was, and he firmly believed that not even in the farthest galaxy imaginable, he would find something better than whatever this was.

If Keith insisted that Lance was the sun, then Keith was the moon. Some forgot that the sun was a star, but it was the moon that always stood out in a sea full of them. It was different, and so much brighter. It might not give off light of its own, but it reflected light and illuminated what otherwise would be complete darkness. That in itself was pretty damn special.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I CAN'T BELIEVE I FINALLY MANAGED TO FINISH THIS FIC
> 
> Thank you all ;w; for everything  
> I could not have done this without all of your support and comments  
> I love hearing from you!!   
> hmu on tumblr, im quincyisawreckingball  
> talk to me, give me prompts, be my friend
> 
> I have had soooo much fun with this fic and I am so happy that so many of you have liked it.   
> Thank you so much!!!!
> 
> I might do an epilogue for this, but it will depend on how much free time I have  
> Again, thank you all for the wonderful support!!


End file.
